



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap7.Zi.7 Copyright No* 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 









































































































































































































































































































































































THE ODD ONE 










THE^ODD ONE 


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By the Author of 

Probable Sons/” “Eric’s Good News,” “Teddy’s Button, 3 
“Dwell Deep,” etc. 



Toronto 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


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M DCCC XCVII 


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S ■"> i 3 Copyright, 1897, by 

Fleming H. Revell Company 



THE NEW YORK TYPE-SETTING COMPANY 


THE CAXTON PRESS 



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CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGE [l” 

Caged Birds 7 

MP^l 

CHAPTER II 

Mother Nature” 15 /$& t K 

CHAPTER III 

Was it an Angel? 23 

CHAPTER IV 

Adventures 32 

CHAPTER V 

Prince 43 

CHAPTER VI 

Made into a Couple 53 

CHAPTER VII 

Haymaking 63 


God’s Patchwork . 


CHAPTER VIII 


7i 

5 



Contents 


CHAPTER IX 

PAGE 

Betty’s Discovery 79 

CHAPTER X 

A Little Messenger 89 

CHAPTER XI 

A Daring Feat 97 

CHAPTER XII 

Uncle Harry’s Friend 107 

CHAPTER XIII 

“When We Two Met! ” 115 

CHAPTER XIV 

A Hero’s Death 125 

CHAPTER XV 

Comforted 134 



6 



CAGED BIRDS 


It was just four o’clock on a dull-gray winter afternoon. 
The little Stuarts’ nursery looked the picture of coziness and 
comfort, with the blazing fire that threw flickering lights over 
the bright-colored pictures on the walls, the warm carpet 
under foot, and the fair, fresh faces of the children gathered 
there. 

Five of them there were, and they were alone, for the old 
nurse, who had brought them all up from their infancy, was 
at present absent from the room. 

By one of the large square windows stood one of the little 
girls ; she was gazing steadily out into the fast darkening 
street below, her chin resting on one of the bars that were 
fastened across the lower part of the window. How the 
children disliked those bars! Marks of little teeth were 
plainly discernible along them, and no prisoners could have 
tried more perseveringly to shake them from their sockets 
than they did. Betty, who stood there now, had received 
great applause one afternoon when, after sundry twists and 
turns, she had successfully thrust her little dark curly head 
through and was able to have a delightfully clear view of all 
the passers-by. 

But the sequel was not so pleasant, for somehow or other 
7 



The Odd One 



Betty’s head would not come in so easily as it went out, and 
when nurse came to the rescue with an angry hand, the poor 
little head was very much bruised in consequence, and Betty’s 
reward for such dexterity was an aching head and dry bread 
for tea. She was a slight, slim little figure with big blue 
eyes and long, black, curved lashes and eyebrows which 
made her eyes the most beautiful feature in her face. Very 
soft, fine, curly hair surrounded a rather pathetic-looking little 
face ; but her movements were like quicksilver, and though 
all the little Stuarts were noted for their mischievous ways 
and daring escapades, Betty eclipsed them all. 

She turned from the window soon with a sigh of relief. 

“ He’s coming,” she said ; “ old Bags is coming, and it’s 
my turn to-day.” 

There was no response. Bobby and Billy, the twins, little 
lads only just promoted from petticoats to knickerbockers, 
were deeply engrossed in one corner of the room over their 
bricks. Perched on the top of a low chest of drawers were 
Douglas and Molly, and their heads were in that close prox- 
imity that told that secret business was going on. 

Betty’s heart sank a little. 

“ Old Bags is coming,” she repeated ; “ don’t you hear his 
bell?” 


“ We’re busy,” said Douglas, looking up ; “ we won’t have 
Bags’s story to-day.” 

“You promised yesterday when you put it off that you 
would hear it to-day. It isn’t fair. I always listen to you.” 

“ Tell it to the babies ; they’ll like to hear.” 

This was adding insult to injury; and when the twins 
trotted up to the window, Betty turned a defiant back upon 
them, tears of disappointment dimming the blue eyes. 

“She’s cwying,” announced Bobby, twisting his head 
round to look up into her face. 

8 ' 


Caged Birds 

Betty turned round furiously ; a sharp push sent Bobby to 
the ground, and in falling he struck his head against one of 
the feet of the nursery table. There was a howl, general 
confusion, and nurse appeared to discover and chastise the 
offender. Betty was led off in disgrace to a little room on 
the nursery landing, known by the children as “ Cells.” Their 
uncle, a young captain in the Guards, had given it that name, 
but in reality it was nurse’s store-room, and was heated with 
hot pipes to air the linen kept there. It was a small, square 
room containing a table and one chair ; the window was high 
above the children’s reach, and locked cupboards were on 
every side. Nurse invariably used it for punishing small 
offenses, and, being a woman of stern principles, she generally 
set the little culprit a text to learn while there. A Bible was 
on the table, and Betty was led up to it. 

"You will stay here till tea-time, and will not come out 
until you have learned a text and said you are sorry for 
knocking down your little brother in a fit of wicked temper. 
This is the fourth time I have had to bring you here this 
week, and it is now only Tuesday. I have more trouble 
with you than all the others put together, and you ought to 
be ashamed of yourself.” 

Betty was sobbing bitterly, and when nurse left the room 
and turned the key behind her, the child flung herself down 
on the floor. 

“ It’s a shame! It’s all Douglas and Molly; they make 
promises and don’t keep them. And it was ever so much 
nicer a story than Molly’s ; I know they’d have liked it if 
they’d heard it. They never think I can do anything! ” 

To explain the cause of Betty’s grievance, I must tell you 
that it was a custom of the little Stuarts to await the muffin- 
man’s approach on his rounds, and as his bell would sound 
they would take turns each day to relate to the others an 

9 


The Odd One 



account of the different houses he had gone to, and who 
had been the fortunate individuals to receive the muffins that 
had already disappeared from his tray. It was an idle hour 
in the nursery from four to five, and if the gathering dusk 
kept the active eyes still the fertile brains were brought into 
requisition. Telling stories was a constant delight, and the 
wonderful adventures that befell the muffins on their daily 
rounds kept the little gathering quiet and happy till tea 
appeared. 

Betty’s stories were not inferior to her elders’, and it was 
her childish sense of justice and consideration that was out- 
raged. But tears will come to an end, and soon the little 
maiden was perched up at the table to learn the task before 
her. She turned over the pages till she reached Revelation, 
that mysterious and mystical book that so fascinates and 
contents a child’s soul, though the wisest on earth read it 
with perplexity and awe. And after a moment or two Betty 
had found a text to learn ; and when nurse appeared later 
on she repeated unfalteringly, with shining eyes and with a 
note of triumph in her tone, “ ‘ And I said unto him, Sir, 
thou knowest. And he said to me, these are they which 
came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb ’ ” (Rev. 
vii. 14). 

“ That’s a good child ; are you sorry? ” 

“Yes,” was the reply, rather absently given; for Betty’s 
mind was on the white-robed throng, and how could she let 
nurse know all the workings of her busy brain over the verse 
she had been taking into her heart and soul? 

“ And remember,” said nurse, gravely, “ that no naughty 
children who quarrel and fight will ever be in heaven.” 

“Not even if they’ve been through great tribulation?” 
quickly demanded Betty. 

10 


Caged Birds 


But nurse did not hear, and Betty was received into the 
well-lighted nursery with acclamation from the others, al- 
ready seated at the round table for tea. 

“We’ve made a new game, Molly and I,” announced 
Douglas. 

He was a fair, curly-headed boy with an innocent baby 
face, and a talent for inventing the most mischievous plans 
that could ever be concocted, with a will that made all the 
others bow before him. Molly was also fair, with long golden 
hair that reached to her waist; extreme self-possession and 
absence of all shyness were perhaps her chief characteristics. 
“ I am the eldest of the family,” she was fond of asserting, 
and she certainly claimed the eldest’s privileges. Yet her 
temper was sweet and obliging, and she could easily be 
swayed and led by those around her. 

“Is it one for outdoors or indoors?” asked Betty, with 
interest. 

“ Indoors, of course ; we’ll tell you after tea.” 

“Your mother wants you in the parlor after tea,” put in 
nurse ; “ you and Miss Molly are to go down.” 

Molly looked pleased, not so Douglas. At last, putting 
down his piece of bread and butter, he looked up into nurse’s 
face with one of his sweetest looks. 

“Why are grown-up people so very dull, nurse? They 
all are just the same, except Uncle Harry. They are dread- 
fully heavy and dull.” 

“ They have so little to amuse them,” Molly said reflec- 
tively; “no games or toys. They never make believe, or 
pretend the lovely things we do.” 

“ And their legs get stiff, and their dresses trip them up 
if they try to run.” 

“ But they never get punished, and they’re never scolded, 
and they’re never wicked.” 



11 


The Odd One 


This from Betty. 

“ It’s their talk that is so stupid,” went on Douglas ; “ they 
look nice until they begin to talk ; they make me dreadfully 
sleepy to listen to them.” 

“Shall I go down instead of you to-night? ” asked Betty, 
eagerly. 

“ Don’t chatter such nonsense. It’s strange times when 
children begin to pick their elders to pieces. You weren’t 
asked for, Miss Betty; and Master Douglas is to go down 
and behave himself.” 

“ The three B’s aren’t big enough yet to leave the nursery.” 

Douglas said this with a sparkle of mischief in his eye. It 
was a sore point with Betty to be ranked with the twins, for 
she was only a year behind Douglas. Long ago he had 
seized hold of a laughing joke of his father’s alluding to the 
names by which the three youngest children were called, and 
had twitted her with it ever since. 

“B for baby — Baby Betty, Baby Bobby, and Baby Billy; 
babies must go to bed,” he explained. 

Betty gave an angry kick under the table, but did not 
speak. 

She was very silent for the rest of that evening ; but when 
she and Molly were safely in bed, and the room was very 
quiet, she asked : 

“ Molly, do you know what ‘ tribulation ’ means? ” 

“I’m not sure that I do,” was the hesitating reply. 
“ I think it’s something dreadful. Why do you want to 
know?” 

“ Is it like the dark valley Christian went through in 'The 
Pilgrim’s Progress,’ or the goblin’s cave we make up about? ” 

“ I expect it is something like. Why? ” 

“ It’s on the way to heaven,” whispered Betty, in an awe- 
struck tone; “the Bible says so.” 

12 


Caged Birds 

There was silence, then Molly said : 

“ There’s a book in father’s library will tell you about it. 
It tells the meaning of every word ; father said so. A dick- 
something it is.” 

' ‘ I’ll ask Mr. Roper to get it for me.” 

And Betty turned over on her pillow, comforted by this 
thought, and fell fast asleep. 

Mr. Stuart was a member of Parliament, and, being a man 
who threw his whole soul into everything he did, was too 
much engrossed with business when in town to have much 
to do with his children. He spent a great part of his day 
in the library with his secretary, a quiet young fellow who 
was looked upon by the children as an embodiment of wisdom 
and learning. Mrs. Stuart saw as little of her children as her 
husband ; her time was fully occupied in attending committee 
meetings, opening bazaars, and superintending numerous pet 
projects for ennobling and raising the standard of social 
morality among the masses. She was not an indifferent 
mother; she was only an active, busy woman, who, after 
carefully selecting a thoroughly good and trustworthy woman 
as her nurse, left the children’s training with perfect confi- 
dence to her. And between her social and charitable claims 
there was not much time for having her little ones about her. 
A young governess came every day for two hours to teach 
the three eldest ones, but their life was essentially a nursery 
one. And when the House was closed, and the husband and 
wife would go off to the Continent or to the Highlands, the 
children would be sent to a quiet seaside town with their 
nurse and the nursery-maid. 

The following afternoon a little figure stole quietly down to 
the library door. Betty knew her father was out, and Mr. Roper 
never repulsed any of the children. After a timid knock she 
passed in, and made a little picture as she stood in the fire- 

13 


The Odd One 



light in her brown velveteen frock and large, white-frilled 
pinafore. 

“ Well,” said Mr. Roper, wheeling round from his writing- 
desk, “ what do you want, Betty? ” 

“ I want one of father’s books,” the child said earnestly ; 
“one that Dick Somebody wrote — a book that tells the 
meaning of everything.” 

“ I wish there were such a one in existence,” said the 
young man, smiling a little sadly. “ Now what is in your 
little head, I wonder? ” 

“ It’s a word I want to find, please.” 

“ Oh, a word! Bless the child, she means a dictionary! ” 
And Mr. Roper laughed as he drew a fat volume out of a 
shelf and placed it on a table by the little girl. 

“ May I help you to find it? ” 

“ It’s * tribulation.’ I don’t know how it’s spelled.” 

He did not ask questions; that was one thing that at- 
tracted Betty toward him. She was a curious mixture of 
frankness and reserve ; she would confide freely of her own 
free will, but if pressed by questions would relapse at once 
into silence. He found the word for her, and she read with 
difficulty, “ ' Trouble, distress, great affliction.’ ” 

“Do they all mean tribulation? ” she asked. 

“ Tribulation means all of them,” was the answer. 

“And can children have tribulation, Mr. Roper?” 

“What do you think? ” 

“ I must have it if I’m to get to heaven,” she said emphati- 
cally. And then she left him, and the young man repeated 
her words to himself with a sigh and a smile as he replaced 
the book in its resting-place. 


14 


II 



44 MOTHER NATURE ” 

A few evenings after this, as nurse was undressing the 
little girls for bed, Mrs. Stuart came into the nursery. She 
was going out to dinner, and looked very beautiful in her 
soft satin dress and pearls. She was tall and stately, with 
the same golden hair as Molly, but her face was somewhat 
cold in expression. 

Sitting down in an easy-chair by the fire, she asked : 

“What is the matter with Betty? Is she in disgrace 
again? ” 

Betty was standing in her long night-dress at the foot of 
her small bed; her hands were clenched, and there was a 
resolute, determined look upon her flushed face. 

“One of her obstinate fits,” said nurse, angrily; “she 
generally goes to bed before Miss Molly, and because I have 
let her stay up a little later to-night she is as contrary as she 
can be. I can do nothing with her; a good whipping is 
what she wants! ” 

Betty’s blue eyes wandered from nurse’s face to her 
mother’s, as if seeking consolation there ; her hands relaxed, 
and a slight quiver came to the little lips. 

“Are you going to a party, mother? May I come and 
kiss you? ” 


15 


The Odd One 


It was Molly who spoke. She was in the act of scram- 
bling into bed, but upon receiving permission she made her 
way a little shyly across to where her mother was seated. 

“Now keep your hands off my dress,” Mrs. Stuart said 
with a smile ; but she put her arm round the little figure and 
kissed her, and sent her back to bed perfectly happy. All 
the children adored their mother, though it was adoration at 
a distance. 

“ Now come here, Betty. What have you been doing? 
How is it that I never visit the nursery without hearing com- 
plaints of your naughtiness? ” 

“ I'm going to be good now,” said Betty, hanging her head 
and coming slowly forward into the firelight. 

“ She has refused to say her prayers,” said nurse, sternly. 

“ I will say them now.” And Betty raised her eyes to her 
mother somewhat wistfully. 

“ Why did you refuse to say them when nurse told you to? ” 

“ Because Molly was saying her prayers.” 

“ Well, what had that to do with it? ” 

Betty did not answer. 

“Answer me.” 

The child looked round. Nurse had left the room. She 
worked her little foot backward and forward in the long- 
haired rug rather nervously, and then, almost in a whisper, 
said : 

“ God couldn’t listen to both of us, and I wanted Him to 
listen to me.” 

Mrs. Stuart gazed perplexedly at her little daughter, then 
laughed. 

“You are a little goose! Go and say your prayers at 
once, and get into bed. I have come here to talk to nurse.” 

Betty crept away. Her mother’s amused laugh had hurt 
her more than nurse’s scoldings. It was hard to have one’s 
16 


“Mother Nature” 


secret feelings brought to light and scoffed at, and her sen- 
sitive little soul felt this, though in a dim, uncertain way. 

“ I want to have God all to myself,” was her thought as, 
a few minutes later, she laid her little head down on the 
pillow. “ I wonder if I’m very wicked? I won’t say my 
prayers if He is not listening.” 

“ Now, nurse,” said Mrs. Stuart, as that worthy reappeared, 
“ I want to talk to you. Mr. Stuart and I are going abroad 
after Easter; he is not well, and the doctors have ordered 
him away. I want to send you and the children into the 
country for the summer. I don’t fancy their being at the 
seaside all that time. You were telling me some time ago of 
your old home. Isn’t it a brother of yours who has the farm? 
Yes? Well, do you think they have room to take you all 
in?” 

Nurse’s face glowed with pleasure. 

“ He has no chick or child, ma’am, and the house is large 
and roomy ; his wife was saying in a letter to me they should 
like lodgers in the summer. I’m sure it would please them 
to take us in, and the country round there is wonderfully 
healthy.” 

“ I think that would answer very well,” Mrs. Stuart went 
on thoughtfully. “We may be away six months ; and the 
children are looking pale — a country life will do them all the 
good in the world. Let them run wild, nurse ; they will come 
back to their lessons all the better for it. Miss Grant told 
me this morning she would have to give up teaching — her 
mother is very ill ; so, all things combined, I think this plan 
will work well. Will you write to your brother and find out 
if he can take you in the last week in April? Let me know 
when you have heard from him.” 

Mrs. Stuart rose as she spoke,— her visits were never long, 
— and nurse left the room with her. 



17 


The Odd One 



“Betty,” said Molly, in an eager tone, “did you hear? 
We’re going into the country.” 

“ I heard ; and no lessons, and we’re to run wild ; how 
lovely! ” Betty’s curly head bobbed up and down in excite- 
ment, then she said persuasively, “ Molly, let you and me 
keep it a secret together; we won’t tell Douglas or the 
twins.” 

This required consideration. Molly sat up in bed and 
looked thoughtful. 

“ I never do have a secret with you,” pleaded Betty. 
“You and Douglas have lots. I never have any one to 
have secrets with.” 

“Well, I’ll see,” and there was a little of the elder sister 
in Molly’s tone. “ I’ll tell you to-morrow morning. Oh, it 
will be jolly in the country, won’t it? And nurse’s home, 
that she tells us about, is like our story-books: it’s full of 
calves, and lambs, and horses, and ducks, and chickens, and 
haymaking, and pigs! ” 

“ And ponds and apple-orchards ; and we shall have cream 
and honey and strawberries every day! ” continued Betty. 

The little girls’ voices were raised in their excitement, and 
they did not notice a door at the end of the room slowly 
open. 

“ What a row! Are you telling stories? ” 

It was Douglas, who slept in a little room off the nursery, 
and who had been roused by the sound of talking. 

“ Hush! nurse will hear. Come and sit on my bed,” said 
Molly, “ and then you will hear all about it.” 

“ O Molly, it was to be our secret! ” 

“Douglas won’t tell. Besides, nurse is sure to tell us; 
she knew we were awake and listening.” 

Betty gave a little sigh, then joined eagerly in giving her 
brother the delightful information. 

18 


“Mother Nature" 


He listened, rumpling up his fair curls and blinking his 
blue eyes, which were already heavy with sleep. 

“ Easter is years off,” he said at last. “ Why, we are still 
in winter. I dare say we sha’n’t go, after all.” 

“We are in February now,” said Molly, looking a little 
disappointed at the calm way he received such rapturous 
news. 

“ If I go,” Douglas went on meditatively, “ I shall ask 
father to let me have a gun, and I shall shoot rabbits and 
birds every day.” 

“ Then you’d be a wicked, cruel boy,” pronounced Betty, 
indignantly. “ I shall catch all the rabbits I can see and 
tame them.” 

“Then I shall let them loose again,” retorted Douglas; 
and taking up Molly’s pillow, he flung it with all his strength 
at Betty, who instantly returned it, and a pillow fight com- 
menced. Molly joined delightedly in the fray; but alas! in 
the height of the excitement, Betty backed into a can of 
water put ready for their morning bath. Over she went, 
head first, on the floor, and the whole contents of the can 
flooded her and the carpet together. Douglas precipitately 
fled into his little room, and Molly into her bed, so that 
when nurse came hastily in Betty again was discovered as 
chief offender. While she was being hustled into a dry night- 
dress nurse relieved her vexed feelings by giving her a good 
scolding, and Betty eventually crept into bed, wondering if 
she was really the “ wickedest, mischievousest child on earth,” 
or if grown-up people sometimes made mistakes. 

For the next few days nothing was talked of but the pro- 
posed country visit ; but as weeks went on, and spring seemed 
still as far away, the children’s excitement subsided, and the 
ordinary routine of lessons, walks, and play engrossed their 
whole attention. 


19 


The Odd One 



But Easter came at last, and then packing up began. Miss 
Grant took her departure, and poor Sophy, the nursery-maid, 
had her hands full enough, for nurse’s command was to keep 
the children quiet and not let them come near her when 
packing. 

Mr. Roper was leaving the library one afternoon about 
four o’clock, when he saw the disconsolate little figure of 
Betty seated on the stairs. 

“Anything the matter? ” he asked good-naturedly. 

“ We’re going away to-morrow,” was the reply, “ and it is 
all topsy-turvy upstairs. Douglas and Molly have been lions 
for hours, and Bobby and Billy two monkeys, and I’ve been 
the man. I’m tired of being him, and they won’t let me 
change. I’ve broken a jug and basin, and nearly pulled a 
cupboard over, and spilled a bottle of cod-liver oil all over 
Billy’s hair, and upset nurse’s work-basket, and then I ran 
away and hid and came down here. You don’t know how 
tiring it is to be hunted by four animals all at once.” 

Mr. Roper sat down on the stairs by her and laughed 
heartily. “Poor little hunter! ” he said; “and how does 
nurse bear all this raging storm around her? ” 

“ Oh, nurse is with mother in the night-nursery. Sophy is 
running after all of us ; I don’t know who she pretends to be, 
but when I left her she was sitting on the floor wiping Billy’s 
hair and crying.” 

Betty’s tone and face were grave, and Mr. Roper stopped 
laughing. “ Have you been thinking over tribulation any 
more? ” he asked. 

Betty nodded. 

“ A lot,” she said emphatically, then shut up her little lips 
tightly, and Mr. Roper knew he was to be told no more. 

“Are you going into the country, Mr. Roper?” he was 
asked presently. 

20 


“Mother Nature" 


“ No, indeed. I am not rich enough to have such a holi- 
day as is in prospect for you. I wonder what you will do 
with yourselves all the time? You must come back much 
the better and wiser, Betty, for it.” 

“Why?” 

“You will be six months older, and old Mother Nature is 
the best governess for little ones like you. She will teach 
you many a lesson if you keep your eyes and ears open.” 

Betty’s eyes were very wide open now. 

“ Does she live at the farm? I never heard nurse speak 
of her. We don’t want another governess there. How do 
you know her? ” 

“ I knew her when I was a little boy, and loved her. I 
love her now, but my work is in London, and I never get 
much chance of seeing her.” 

“ She must be very old,” Betty said meditatively. 

“Very old; and yet every year she seems younger and 
more beautiful. You will see her at her best, Betty. I shall 
expect you to come home and tell me all about her.” 

“ Shall I give her your love and a kiss when I see her? ” 

“ Yes,” said the young man, smiling down upon the earnest 
child beside him. 

A rush of feet behind them, and Molly and Douglas came 
tearing downstairs. 

“Here she is! Where have you been? Bobby has cut 
his head open, and Sophy has rushed to nurse, and nurse is 
scolding away, so we came off. Mr. Roper, do you know 
we’re going away to-morrow? ” 

“And will you come and see us one day, Mr. Roper? ” 

“ Mr. Roper, does every farmer in the country go about 
in his night-shirt ? Douglas says they do, and we have pic- 
tures of them.” 

“ And are there stags and wild boar to hunt? Do tell us.” 

21 



The Odd One 


Mr. Roper made short work of these questions and de- 
parted. He was a reserved, reticent man, and did not un- 
derstand the boisterous spirits of the little Stuarts. Betty 
was his favorite ; he was always ready for a chat with her, 
but the others worried him. 

Nurse was very thankful when she got herself and her 
little charges all comfortably settled in the railway train for 
Brook Farm the next day. Sophy was not going with them, 
but the longing to be in the old home again quite compen- 
sated nurse for the additional labor and responsibility she 
would have. 

The children had parted from their parents with great 
composure. Mrs. Stuart had reiterated parting injunctions 
to nurse, and their father had presented all five with a bright 
coin each, which gift greatly added to their delight at going. 

“Not much affection in children’s hearts,” said Mr. Stuart 
to his wife, as he watched the beaming faces gathered round 
the cab window to wave “ good-by.” 

“ They will get through life the better for absence of sen- 
timent and demonstrativeness,” replied Mrs. Stuart ; and per- 
haps those words were an index to her character. 




WAS IT AN ANGEL? 


It was a lovely afternoon in May, a week after the chil- 
dren’s arrival at Brook Farm. They were together in the 
orchard, which was a mass of pink and white bloom. Bobby 
and Billy were having a see-saw on a low apple-branch, 
Douglas was perched on a higher bough of a cherry-tree, and 
the little girls were lying on the ground. Tongues were busy, 
as usual. 

“ We’ve seen everything round the house,” Douglas was 
asserting in rather a dictatorial tone ; “ and now we must be 
busy having adventures— people always do in the country.” 

“What kind? ” asked Molly, meekly. 

“ They get tossed by bulls, or lost in the woods, or drowned 
in ponds,” Douglas went on thoughtfully. 

“ I’m not going to do any of those.” And Betty’s tone 
was very determined. 

“ What are you going to do, then? ” 

“ I shall be busy all by myself. I’m going out to look for 
some one.” 

“Who?” asked Molly, curiously. 

“ Some one Mr. Roper told me about. He sent his love 
to her and a kiss. It’s a secret between me and Mr. Roper ; 
I sha’n’t tell you any more.” 


23 



The Odd One 

And Betty rolled over in the grass with a delighted chuckle 
at the puzzled faces round her. 

“ It’s only one of her make-ups,” Douglas said, recovering 
his composure ; “ let me tell you of my plans. Do you see 
those thick trees at the top of that hill? That’s a real wood. 
Now, if nurse sends us out to-morrow afternoon while she 
takes a nap, I’m going there, and you girls must come after 
me.” 

“ And us too,” put in Bobby, listening attentively. 

“ If you can walk so far, and don’t go telling nurse about 
it.” 

“ How far is it? Six miles? ” asked Molly, who would 
have been willing to walk ten had her brother so ordained. 

“It is only through three fields, Sam told me.” 

Sam was one of the carters, who had already become one 
of Douglas’s greatest friends. 

“ He be the pluckiest, knowingest little chap that ever Oi 
see wi’ such a baby face! ” was the carter’s opinion of him. 

“ If it’s a very nice wood perhaps I’ll come,” said Betty. 

“You must save something from dinner to take with us, 
for we will have a feast when we get there.” 

This sounded delightful, and all spent the rest of the day 
in busy confabulation as to how they could get there without 
being stopped by any one, and what provisions they must 
take. 

But alas! when the next day came nurse announced her 
intention of taking Douglas and Molly with her to tea with 
a friend, a little distance off, and so the visit to the wood 
was postponed. 

Betty pleaded to be allowed to go with them, but nurse 
refused. 

“ I can’t have more than two, and I’m taking them more 
to keep them out of mischief than anything. Mrs. Giles is 
24 



Was it an Angel? 


going to look after the little ones, so you must amuse your- 
self.” 

Betty felt rather disconsolate after they had gone. She 
wandered into the farm kitchen, where Mrs. Giles, a good- 
natured, smiling woman, was busy making bread. The twins 
were in a corner playing with some kittens. Betty stood at 
the table watching. At last she looked up a little shyly and 
said : 

“ Mrs. Giles, do you know a very nice governess that lives 
here? ” 

“A guviness, bless your little heart! There’s Miss Tyler 
in the village two mile off, but I don’t think much of her; 
she’s too giddy and smart, and the way she carries on with 
Dan Somers is the talk of the place ! Are you after having 
lessons, then? ” 

“Oh, no, no, no! ” cried Betty, eagerly; “that’s why I 
don’t talk about it to any one ; but I should like to see her, 
for I have a message to give her. I don’t think it can be 
Miss Tyler; Mother Nestor — I forget the name, but some- 
thing like Nestor or Nasher, Mr. Roper called her. She’s 
old and young together, and very pretty.” 

Mrs. Giles laughed. “ Old and young together! I know 
of naught like that ; when we gets old, youth don’t stick to 
us. Do you think I answer to that description, Miss Betty? ” 

“ I should say you were very old,” observed Betty, reflec- 
tively ; “ not a bit young ; but I think your red cheeks are 
very pretty.” 

Mrs. Giles laughed again, and Betty left the kitchen, say- 
ing, “ I’ll go out of doors and look for her ; perhaps she’ll 
be coming along the road.” 

Into the bright sunshine she went, across a clover-field, 
and out at a gate into the white, dusty road. She trotted 
along, picking flowers by the wayside, and peeping over 

25 



The Odd One 




•vjjf hedges to look at the tiny lambs or young foals and heifers 
sporting on the green grass. Everything was new and 
delightful to her ; the birds singing, the budding trees, the 
bright blue sky and sweet fresh air, all were filling her little 
heart with content and happiness. Wandering on, she kept 
no reckoning of time or distance, until she came to a church 
in the midst of green elms, and rooks keeping up a perpetual 
chatteration on the topmost branches of the trees. 

Betty was a little afraid of rooks; they were so big and 
strong and black that she feared they would peck her legs ; 
but she was very tired and warm, and as the church gate was 
open she thought she would venture into the cool shade of 
the elms inside. Her little steps took her to the church 
porch, and finding the door partly open, with a child’s curi- 
osity she pushed her way in, there to stand with admiring 
awe in the cool, quiet atmosphere. It was a pretty old 
church with stained-glass windows, and the sun streaming 
through sent flashing rays of red and blue, golden and purple, 
across the old stone walls and oaken seats. 

Betty felt she was in another world at once, and the very 
novelty and strangeness of her surroundings had a great 
charm for her. Slowly she made her way round the church, 
looking at every tablet and monument, and trying in vain to 
decipher the writing upon them. But one among them 
brought her to a standstill : it was the figure of a little girl, 
sculptured in white marble, lying in a recumbent position ; 
her hands were crossed on her breast, with a lily placed be- 
tween them ; her eyes were closed, and her hair curled over 
her brow and round her shoulders in the most natural way. 
Just above her was a stained-glass window — a beautiful rep- 
resentation of the Saviour taking the children in His arms 
and blessing them. Below the window was written in plain 
black letters : 

26 



Was it an Angel ? 

IN LOVING MEMORY OF VIOLET RUSSELL 
Aged six years 

“ Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them 
not ” 


Betty drew a deep breath ; her thoughts were busy. She 
wished herself that little girl, lying so calm and beautiful, 
with the red and golden rays slanting across her ; and then, 
looking up at the window, she wished still more that she was 
one of those happy children in the Lord’s arms. 

Looking up with tearful eyes, she clasped her hands and 
let her buttercups and bluebells fall to the ground unheeded. 

“ O God, I will be good! I will be good! ” 

Those were all the words uttered, but He who heard them 
looked down into the overflowing heart and knew all that 
lay behind them. 

Long the child stood there, and then with flagging foot- 
steps made her way down the aisle. 

“ I’m very tired,” she murmured to herself ; “ I’ll just sit 
down inside that pew.” 

And a moment after, curling herself up on the cushions, 
Betty went fast asleep. 

She was dreaming soon of a wonderful white-robed throng. 
She saw the little girl walk up with her white, still face to a 
golden throne ; she tried to follow, but could not manage to 
walk, and then the most wonderful music began to sound; 
louder and clearer it came, until with a start she opened her 
eyes and discovered where she was. Was it all a dream? 
The music was still sounding in her ears, and, sitting up, she 
peered over the edge of the high pew. There, seated at the 
organ, was a lady, and she was pouring forth such a flood of 

27 



The Odd One 


imH,. 



melody and song that it did indeed seem to the half-wakened 
child music straight from heaven. 

Betty listened breathlessly to the words— words that she 
knew now so well and that were ever in her thoughts : “ These 
are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” 

It was a beautiful anthem, and a beautiful voice that was 
singing. Betty had never heard such singing before. She 
gazed with open mouth and eyes. The lady was rather a 
young one, she noticed ; and when her voice rose in triumph, 
and the organ pealed out in accompaniment, Betty saw that 
her uplifted eyes, shining as they were with such a glad light 
behind them, were full of tears. 

“ It’s an angel,” she whispered to herself. And when at 
last the notes died away and there was stillness in the church 
— when she saw the lady’s face bowed in her hands as if in 
prayer — Betty stole softly out of the building and retraced 
her steps along the road, sobbing as she went. It had been 
too much for her excitable little brain ; she always had been 
passionately fond of music, but was more accustomed to the 
street-organs in the City than to any other sort, and this was 
as great a contrast to those as heaven is to earth. 

It was a long way back, but Betty did not feel it. Had 
God sent an angel to sing to her? Was there a chance of 
her ever being among that white-robed throng? If she could 
only go through tribulation! Had the little girl lying so 
white and still gone through it? These and other similar 
puzzling thoughts came crowding through her brain. 

She was very quiet when she reached the farm. They 
were just sitting down to tea when she came in, and Mrs. 
Giles looked relieved when she saw her. 

“We was wonderin’ where you had got to,” she said. 
“Ain’t you tired? You look quite beat.” 

28 


Was it an Angel? 

“I’ve had a lovely afternoon,” was the child’s answer, and 
the blue eyes shone up at her questioner ; but not a word 
more could be got from her, though the little boys did their 
best to extract more information. 

The next day was a wet one, but the little Stuarts were 
never at a loss for occupation, and when they were packed 
off into a large empty garret for the whole afternoon their 
delight was unbounded. 

At last, tired out, their spirits began to flag, and after 
having exhausted all their stock of games they flung them- 
selves down on the ground to rest. 

“ I’ll tell you a story,” said Betty, suddenly. 

“ All right, go on.” 

Betty sat up in a corner and rested her back against the 
wall. She clasped her small hands in front of her, and, 
gazing dreamily up at an old beam across the room, on which 
hung many a cobweb, she began : 

“ It was a beautiful day in heaven — ” 

“ It’s always a beautiful day there,” put in Douglas, 
critically. 

“ I never said it wasn’t. You’re not to interrupt me. It 
was a beautiful day ; the harps were playing and the angels 
singing. And one angel looked as if she wanted something ; 
so God asked her what was the matter. 

“ ‘ Oh, please,’ she said, ' I want to go down to earth to- 
day.’ 

“ * What do you want to do there, O angel? ’ 

“ * I want to play and sing to some children there.’ 

“Then God said she might go. So she flew down and 
changed her clothes — ” 

“What kind of clothes did she put on?” asked Molly, 
eagerly. 

Betty considered a moment. “ She put on a straw hat 

29 




The Odd One 



and a gray dress ; she took off her wings and folded them 
up.” 

“Where did she put them? ” demanded Douglas. 

“ Down a well,” was the prompt reply. “It was a dry 
well, and she put her white dress and crown in it ; she did 
them up in a paper parcel and wrote her name on.” 

“What was her name? ” asked Bobby. 

Betty knitted her brows. “ It was a Bible name, of course ; 
I think it was Miriam. She felt the earth was very hot, for 
the sun was shining like anything; and then she wondered 
whom she could sing to. Well, she walked along a road, and 
then she saw a church ; so she thought that must be a good 
place, and she went inside. The church was dark and cool 
and still, but it was lovely. And there were red and blue 
and yellow and green and violet sunbeams, and beautiful 
painted windows and white marble figures all about, and it 
was so still that you felt you must hush and walk on tiptoe. 
And then what do you think she saw? ” 

All eyes were on Betty now, as she sank her voice to an 
impressive whisper. 

“She saw a little girl fast asleep! ” 

“ Go on,” said Douglas, impatiently, as Betty made an- 
other pause. 

“ So the angel thought she would sing to her ; so she went 
up very softly to the big organ and began to play it, and then 
she began to sing. It was lovely ; she sang like she did in 
heaven ; and the little girl woke up and listened.” 

“ What did she sing about ? ” asked Molly. 

“ She sang about heaven, and all the people and children 
who had come through great tribulation. And the music 
went on right up to the top of the church, and her voice got 
louder and louder, and then softer and softer to a whisper ; and 
then the music got softer too, and then— it was quite still.” 
30 


Was it an Angel? 

“ Well, go on. What did the little girl do? ” 

“ The little girl came away ; she — she cried a little.” 

“ Why, you’re crying too! What a silly! ” 

Betty dashed her small hand across her eyes and threw 
up her head defiantly. “ That’s all my story,” she said. 

“Oh, what a stupid story! You must make a proper 
ending.” 

“You shall go on! we’ll make you! ” 

“ Did the angel get her proper clothes again? ” 

“Yes,” said Betty, with a little sigh; “she put them on 
and went up to heaven ; and God asked her what she’d done, 
and she told Him she thought the little girl would like to 
come to heaven, if He would let her.” 

There was a little break in Betty’s voice. She slid down 
from her corner and rolled over on the floor, her face hidden 
from the others. Then in a second she called out, “ I see a 
mouse! Let us catch him! ” 

The children were on their feet directly, and a regular 
scramble ensued, Betty the most boisterous of them all. And 
when nurse came in a little later she found the little story- 
teller in the act of crawling across the oaken beam in the 
center of the room, to the intense delight of those watching 
her below. 

Nurse caught her breath at the daring feat, but waited till 
she had accomplished it in safety, then caught her in her 
arms, and, taking her off, gave her a good whipping; and 
Betty’s spirits totally subsided for the rest of the evening. 






IV 


ADVENTURES 


The visit to the wood came off the day after. Nurse ar- 
rayed all her little charges in large holland overalls and sent 
them out into the fields for the afternoon. And the little 
party set out in good spirits, Bobby and Billy tramping 
sturdily along, under the firm conviction that they were going 
to meet with wild beasts and go through the most harrowing 
adventures. 

It was a long walk, but they reached the wood at last, and 
came to a standstill when they saw the ditch and the thick 
hedge that surrounded it. 

" There’s a castle, and a princess inside, so they don’t like 
people to come in,” asserted Douglas ; “ but we’ll find a hole 
somewhere and creep through.” 

And this was soon done. The children looked round them 
with delight at the little winding paths, the banks of green 
moss, and the thick, overhanging bushes and trees, that 
seemed so full of life and interest. Douglas was in his ele- 
ment. 

“ We’ll find a place we must call home first, and then we’ll 
see what food we’ve got.” 

The foot of an old oak-tree was chosen. Bits of cake, 
pudding, some biscuits, and a few lumps of sugar were then 
32 


Adventures 


produced from different pockets, and these were given over 
to Douglas, who, wrapping them in paper, deposited them 
inside the hollow trunk of the tree. 

“ Now,” he said, u we must all divide and go in search of 
adventures ; and when we’ve found them we can come back 
and tell the others here, and then we’ll have a feast.” 

“ And if we don’t find any? ” questioned Betty, doubtfully. 

“Then you must go on till you do. Why, of course a 
wood is full of dangers. I mean to have an awful time. 
We must go two and two: Molly and I will take this path, 
and the twins can take that one, and you, Betty, must go by 
yourself, because you’re the odd one.” 

“ I always have to go alone,” murmured Betty; “it isn’t 
fair.” 

Bobby and Billy stood clasping each other’s hands and 
looking with anxious though determined faces along the path 
mapped out for them. 

“ And if we should meet a cwocodile? ” Billy asked, lifting 
his blue eyes to those of his big brother. 

“ Then you must either kill it or run away,” said Douglas ; 
“ and crocodiles don’t live in woods.” 

“And if we lose ourselves in the wood?” questioned 
Bobby. 

“ If you’re frightened you needn’t go, but stay here till 
we come back,” put in Molly, her conscience a little uneasy 
with turning such little fellows loose on their own .resources. 

But this gave the twins courage. Frightened! Not a bit 
of it! And they trotted off, calling out they were going to 
kill every one they met. 

Betty likewise started on her journey. She was feeling 
rather depressed with the truth of which she was always being 
reminded, namely, that she was the odd one. 

“ I wish there had just been one more of us,” she kept 

33 



The Odd One 



saying to herself. “ I’m either one too many or one too few, 
and it’s very dull to be always alone.” 

But her thoughts soon left herself when she saw some 
rabbits scudding away in the distance, and the flowers on 
her path and the strangeness of her surroundings were quite 
enough to occupy her mind. She soon found that her path 
was coming to an end ; right across it was some fine wire 
netting, and for a moment she hesitated, then, deciding to go 
straight on, clambered over it with great difficulty. The grass 
was smoother here, and the path a wide one. A little dis- 
tance farther was an iron seat, and then she came to a long, 
straight grass walk with trees on either side, and at the end 
a gate in an old stone wall. 

“ I shall have to get through that gate,” she mused, “ or 
else I must climb the wall. I wonder what is inside? It 
might be anything,— a castle, with an ogre or giant, or a 
prince and princess,— and I can’t go back till I find out. My 
adventures have come. But I’m very tired ; I’ll just sit down 
for a little before I go on.” 

A few moments after, Betty’s little body was lying full 
length on the grassy path, and she was counting over a cluster 
of primroses with great care and precision. 

“Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three— ah, what a pity! 
There is a little odd one, just like me! ” 

“ What are you doing, child? ” 

Betty started to her feet. Looking down upon her was a 
tall old lady, dressed in a shady straw hat and black lace 
shawl ; her black silk dress rustled as she moved. One hand 
was resting on a stick, the other was holding a sunshade. 
Her face was as still and cold-looking as some of the figures 
on the monuments in the little village church, and her voice 
stern and peremptory. 

. Wild thoughts flashed through Betty’s brain. Was this a 


' - - 



Adventures 

fairy godmother, a queen, a princess? Or might it possibly 
be the old governess that Mr. Roper loved so much? 

Again the question was repeated in the same stern tone, 
and Betty gazed up in awe as she answered simply : 

“ I was counting the primroses to see if they were even or 
odd.” 

“ And what business have you to be trespassing in my 
private grounds? ” 

“ I didn’t know this was trespassing,” Betty faltered ; “ a 
wood belongs to anybody in the country, and I haven’t got 
inside your gate yet, though I was going to try.” 

“ And pray what were you coming inside my gate to do? ” 

“ I’m— I’m looking for adventures ; I have to do something 
before I go back.” 

“ I think you had better explain to me who you are.” 

The voice was gentler, and Betty took courage. The lady 
listened to her attentively and seemed interested ; she even 
smiled when Betty, looking up, asked innocently, “ I suppose 
you are not a princess, are you? ” 

“ No, I’m not a princess,” she said ; “ but this is a private 
wood, and I cannot allow children to run wild all over it.” 

“And mustn’t we ever come here again?” asked Betty, 
with a grave face. “We should be ever so careful, and we 
won’t pick a flower if you’ll only let us walk about. We’ve 
never seen a wood before, only read about one in our story- 
books ; and children always go through woods in books with- 
out being stopped, unless it’s an ogre or a giant that stops 
them.” 

The lady did not speak for a minute, then she said : 

“ How many are there of you? ” 

“ Five, with me. There’s Molly and Douglas, and there’s 
Bobby and Billy; I’m the odd one.” 

“ Why should you be the odd one? ” 



35 


The Odd One 



“ Because Molly and Douglas are the eldest ones, and 
they always go together ; and Bobby and Billy are the babies 
— mother always calls them the babies ; and I come in be- 
tween, and I belong to no one. You see, in our games it’s 
generally two and two ; I always make everything odd. 
And Molly and Douglas are always having secrets, and that 
only leaves me the babies to play with, and they’re only just 
four years old — much too small for me.” 

“ I suppose you have a doll or something to comfort your- 
self with? I remember I used to when I was a little girl.” 

“ I don’t much like dolls,” said Betty, with a decided shake 
of her curly head ; “ I like something really alive — something 
that moves by itself. There’s a big sheep-dog at our farm 
called Rough. I sometimes get hold of him for a game, but 
he likes Douglas better than me. Sam says he’s always fond 
of boys.” 

“ Would you like to come inside my gate? ” asked the lady, 
looking down upon Betty with a strange tenderness in her 
eyes, though her lips were still grave and stern. 

Betty slipped her hand confidingly into hers. 

“Yes, please; and will you tell me who you are? I 
think you’re rather like a lady I’m trying to find. She teaches 
children ; a governess she is, and she’s old and young to- 
gether. You’re much more like her than Mrs. Giles is.” 

But the lady did not satisfy Betty’s curiosity ; she only said, 
“ 1 have never taught any children in my life,” and led her 
up the grassy walk to the gate in the wall. “I am only going 
to let you stand inside for a moment, and then you must 
run away. And you must never come over the wire netting 
in the wood again. You and your brothers and sister can 
play in the other part of the wood, but I will not have chil- 
dren running over my private walks.” 

She opened the gate, and Betty saw a lovely flower-garden 
36 


Adventures 


with a smooth, grassy lawn, and away in the distance a great 
white house. The flowers were exquisite, and to Betty’s eyes 
they were a feast of delight. Her little face flushed with 
pleasure. 

“ Do you live here? ” she asked. “ How happy you must 
be! ” 

“ Do you like it better than my wood? ” 

Betty turned from the blaze of sunshine and brightness tc 
look at the cool green glade behind her. She did not answer 
for a minute ; then she said, pointing with her small finger 
down the grassy avenue : 

“ It’s something like church down there, it looks so quiet ; 
but this garden is like heaven, I think.” 

The lady smiled. “ I will give you any flower you like to 
take away, so choose.” 

Betty was not long in making her choice. There were 
some beautiful white lilies close by— lilies that might have 
come from the same plant as that one lying between the little 
girl’s hands in church. 

“ I should like one of those, please,” she said with spar- 
kling eyes. 

She was given, not one, but several, and then was dis- 
missed. 

“ And I shall never see you again,” Betty said as she put 
up her mouth for a kiss. She did not say it regretfully, only 
as if stating a fact. 

The lady stooped and kissed her. “ Not unless I send for 
you,” she said. “ Can you find your way back? ” 

Betty nodded brightly and ran off. The lady stood watch- 
ing her little figure for some minutes ; then she gave a deep 
sigh, and her face relapsed into its usual stern and immovable 
expression as she entered her garden and locked the gate 
behind her. 



37 


The Odd One 


Betty ran on as fast as she could to join the others. When 
she reached the oak-tree Douglas and Molly were already 
there, seated on the ground, busily employed in dividing the 
provisions for the feast. They exclaimed at the sight of her 
flowers. 

“ I’ve had a lovely adventure,” said Betty. “ Where are 
Bobby and Billy? ” 

“ We don’t know,” said Molly, rising to her feet and look- 
ing anxious. “ I’m sure they ought to be here by this time.” 

“ Perhaps they’re lost,” Douglas suggested cheerfully. “ I 
was hoping some of us would get lost, and then we should 
have the fun of finding them. We’ll go in a few minutes 
and look for them. Would you like to hear where we have 
been, Betty? ” 

“Yes.” 

“Well, it is rather a stupid wood, for we came to nothing 
particular; only we’ve found a little house. It has three 
sides and a roof — tumbling in. We’re going to mend it up 
and live there next time we come out here. At least, I mean 
to live in it. I shall be a disguised prince hiding for my life, 
and you will all have to search the wood to get food for me. 
Molly and I have made it all up. She is to be my daughter, 
who steals out at night-time to visit me ; you can be a ser- 
vant, who mends the roof and makes me comfortable ; and 
the twins can be soldiers scouring the wood for me.” 

Neither Betty nor Molly showed much interest in this 
plan ; they were both thinking of the twins ; and Douglas, 
having said his say, was quite ready to start off on the quest. 

Together they ran along the path by which the little boys 
had gone. It led them under some low brushwood and then 
along the banks of a stream ; and then, calling their names 
aloud, they were relieved to hear an answering call. A mo- 
ment later and they came upon them. The stream was broad 



Adventures 


and rather deep here, with great boulders of stone appearing 
above the water. Upon one of these boulders, in the center 
of the stream, sat the two little boys, wet to the skin, and 
looking the pictures of abject despair. 

“ However did you get there?” said Douglas, rather 
angrily. 

“ Billy was getting some forget-me-nots, and tumbled in, 
and so I came over to help him, and we can’t get back,” ex- 
plained Bobby, not very lucidly. 

<f If you got over there you can get back again,” Molly 
said decisively. 

At this both the twins began to cry. 

“ It’s so cold ; we was nearly drownded, and we’ve seen a 
shark swim along.” 

Douglas laughed, but took off his shoes and stockings. 

“ I shall have to wade in and bring them over on my 
back,” he said with rather a lordly air. 

And this he did, landing both the twins safely on the bank. 

“ Nurse will scold awfully, they’re both so wet. We shall 
have to go home at once,” said prudent Molly, as with very 
small handkerchiefs she and Betty tried to wipe some of the 
wet off their clothes. 

“And then she’ll say we’re never to come to the wood 
again. I wish we hadn’t brought them with us! ” 

It was a quiet little party that returned to Brook Farm. 
And in the excitement of receiving the vials of nurse’s wrath, 
and the fuss made over the poor little victims, Betty’s ad- 
ventures remained still unheard and unknown. 

She was not sorry that this was so, and was quite content 
to muse in the secrecy of her own heart upon the beautiful 
cold lady who had given her the lilies. She thought of her 
sleeping and waking, and with a strange longing wondered 
if she would ever be allowed to see her again. 



39 


The Odd One 



The next afternoon was a very warm one, but Betty’s 
restless little feet could not stay in the buttercup meadow 
close to the house, where the others were playing, and soon 
a small white figure in a large sunbonnet could have been 
seen plodding along the dusty road toward the churchyard 
in the distance. 

Her little, determined face relaxed into wonderful softness 
when she entered the cool church. Going on tiptoe up the 
aisle, she came to the monument of little Violet Russell, 
and here she paused ; then, clambering up with a little diffi- 
culty, she laid two fresh lilies by the side of the sculptured 
one across the clasped hands of the child’s figure. 

“ There,” she said in a hushed voice ; “ you sha’n’t always 
hold a cold, dead lily, Violet dear ; I’ve brought them to you 
from my own self, because they’re mine, and I’ll get you 
some other flowers when they are dead.” 

She put her soft red lips down and left a kiss on the little 
clasped hands, and then slipped down to the ground again, 
where she stood for a moment looking up at the stained 
window above. A noise startled her. Walking up the middle 
aisle was the lady who had played to her before, and follow- 
ing her a rough country boy, who disappeared through a 
little door behind the organ. 

Betty slipped behind a pillar and watched eagerly. Yes, 
she was going to play again ; and her heart beat high with 
expectation. She crept into one of the high, old-fashioned 
pews, and, sitting on a hassock, leaned her little head back 
upon the seat and prepared herself to listen. 

The music began, and sent a little shiver of delight through 
Betty’s soul. The long, soft notes, that died away like a 
summer breeze, the deep, grand rolls, that seemed to come 
from a cavern below, and then blend with the clear, sweet 
echoes rising and falling, and at length ascending in a burst 
40 


Adventures 


of praise and gladness— it seemed to her that the angels 
above would be stooping to listen to such strains. 

And then, after a little, the lady began to sing ; and Betty 
drew in one deep breath after another. It must be an angel, 
surely! And yet there was something in the fresh holland 
dress and shady hat of the singer this afternoon that seemed 
hardly suitable for an angel’s apparel. 

The lady once looked round, and Betty thought her face 
looked sad; but when she began to sing her face was illu- 
mined with such light and gladness that the child watched it 
entranced. 

An hour passed, and then the singer was startled by the 
sound of a sob. She was singing, “ Oh, that I had wings 
like a dove!” and, turning round, was startled at the sight 
of a white sunbonnet, and two small hands grasping the back 
of one of the pews. Betty had mounted on the hassock to 
have a full view of the singer long ago, and was now trying in 
vain to restrain the pent-up feelings of her sensitive little soul. 

In an instant the lady had left her seat and come up to 
the child. 

“What is the matter, little one? How did you find your 
way in here? ” she asked gently, as she put her arm round 
the sobbing child. 

But Betty could not put her feelings into words ; she only 
shook her head and sobbed, “ I like the music ; don’t stop 
singing.” 

“ I must stop now ; my hour is up. Tell me who you are.” 

Betty made an effort to recover her self-possession. 

“I’m only Betty,” she said, dabbing her face with her 
handkerchief. “ Are you an angel? ” 

“ Indeed I am not ; do I look like one? ” 

And the lady threw back her head and laughed in a very 
amused way. 



41 


The Odd One 


“Not now,” said Betty, soberly; “but you did look like 
one when you were singing, and I — I hoped you might be.” 

“ Why did you hope so? ” 

Again Betty was silent ; then, looking up, she seemed to 
gather courage from the kind face looking down upon her, 
and, burying her face in the lady’s dress, she sobbed out : 

“ I thought God might have sent you, and then you could 
have told me lots of things I wanted to know.” 

“ Perhaps God may have sent me instead of an angel. 
Tell me some of the things you want to know.” 

“ I want to know about Violet and heaven and tribulation,” 
murmured Betty, a little incoherently. And then she started 
as the church clock in the belfry began to chime five. 

“ It’s tea-time ; nurse will be looking for me.” 

The lady stooped and kissed her. “ I must go too,” she 
said. “ Will you come and see me to-morrow afternoon? I 
shall be here at the same time, and then we can have a 
little talk.” 

“What is your name? ” asked Betty. 

“ Nesta,” the young lady answered a little briefly. 

“And do you teach children?” was the next question, 
breathlessly put. 

“ Sometimes ; on Sundays I do.” 

Betty’s face lighted up, but she said no more, and trotted 
out of the church and along the road as hard as ever she 
could. 


42 




PRINCE 

The children were all at breakfast the next morning in the 
old-fashioned kitchen. Nurse and her brother were having 
an animated talk over some reminiscences of the past, when 
there was a knock at the back door, and Mrs. Giles went 
out. Coming back, she appeared with a small hamper under 
her arm, which she placed on the floor. 

“ ’Tis the queerest thing I know of,” she said. “ Look at 
the label now, Jack ; whoever is it for? ” 

Every one crowded round at once. 

“ For the little odd one at Brook Farm.” 

“’Tis for one of the children,” said Jack, rubbing his 
head; “they be the only little ’uns that I know of.” 

“It’s for Betty! ” shouted Douglas and Molly, excitedly; 
“she’s the odd one! Open it quick, Betty; perhaps it’s a 
big cake.” 

“ It’s alive! ” exclaimed nurse, as, on her knees, she tried 
to undo the fastenings. “ Come along, Miss Betty ; you 
shall open it for yourself.” 

Betty came near and with trembling fingers cut the 
string. 

A minute after, and out of the hamper jumped a beautiful 
little black-and-white spaniel. 


43 


The Odd One 



There were screams of delight from all the children, and 
great surmises as to who could have sent it. Betty guessed, 
but said nothing when she found a piece of paper tied to a 
brass collar round his neck, with these words : “ From a 
friend, hoping he may prove a true companion.” 

She clasped her arms round the dog’s neck in ecstasy. 
“ He is my very, very own,” she said, looking up at nurse 
with shining eyes, “ and I’ll have him for ever and ever.” 

The little creature sniffed at her face, and then put out his 
tongue and gave her a lick of satisfaction and approval. 
From that time the two were all in all to each other. 

There was a great deal of discussion about him that morn- 
ing, and Betty had to tell of the strange, stern lady who had 
spoken to her in the wood. 

“ I’m sure she sent him,” Betty kept repeating ; “ I’m sure 
she did.” 

“It was awfully mean to keep your adventure so secret,” 
said Douglas, looking at the dog very wistfully. “ She must 
be a fairy godmother living in the wood. I wish she would 
send me something.” 

“ Perhaps she is a wicked fairy or witch,” suggested Molly, 
“ who has turned a prince into a little dog, and we must find 
a kind of spell to bring him back to a prince again.” 

“That’s what I’ll call him,” said Betty, looking up. “ I’ll 
call him ‘ Prince.’ ” 

Nurse at first demurred at having such an addition to her 
family, but Mrs. Giles comforted her with the assurance: 
“ There, let the little miss enjoy him ; she’ll soon get tired of 
him, — children always do, — and when you go back to the 
City you can leave him behind with us. He’s a good breed 
— that we can see; and Jack will be able to sell him if we 
don’t care about keeping him.” 

It was fortunate Betty did not hear this suggestion. Prince 
44 


Prince 


was rapidly filling a void in her little heart, of which only 
she, perhaps, had been dimly conscious. She was a child 
with strong affections and intense feelings, and a yearning to 
have some one to love and to be loved in return. None of 
the little Stuarts was demonstrative, and few guessed how 
deeply and passionately the bright and mischievous Betty 
longed for the sympathy and love that were so rarely shown 
toward her. 


So engrossing was the possession of Prince that the day 
went by and tea-time came before Betty thought of her new 
friend in the church. 

But when tea was over she took Molly into her confidence. 
“ Molly, do you think I might take Prince for a walk ? Would 
he follow me? ” 

“Where are you going? ” 

“ Pm going to see a lady that I think is the governess Mr. 
Roper told me about. Nesta, her name is; only I think he 
called her Mother Nesta. I told you about it one night, 
don’t you remember? She’s really very old, but she looks 
very young, and this one must be her.” 

“Where did you find her? ” 

“ In a church.” 

“Oh! ” and Molly’s tone was indifferent; “I don’t like 
people in church. Nurse says she is going to take us to 
church to-morrow. I hoped she would forget. Last Sunday 
it was too far, she said. And Douglas and I were going to 
have a beautiful church in the orchard ; there’s an apple-tree 
just like a pulpit.” 

“ Molly,” called out Douglas, “ Sam is going down to the 
river to fish ; he says he’ll show us where we can fish too. 
Do come on! ” 

Away ran Molly. The twins were playing in the garden 
porch, and nurse chatting in the kitchen with her sister-in- 

45 



The Odd One 



law. Betty called Prince, who had been busy with a saucer 
of scraps, and, putting on her straw hat, set off along the 
road to church. Prince was certainly a great charge. He 
was a dog of an inquiring mind, and his continual rushes 
into the hedgesides, and long searches after young frogs in the 
grass, considerably delayed his young mistress’s progress. 

But at length the church was reached. The evening 
shadows threw long, weird shapes across the darkened path 
that led to the porch, the rooks were noisier than usual, and 
Betty looked anxiously down at Prince. 

“You won’t bark, dear, will you? ” she said, stooping and 
lifting him into her arms. “ Because church is a very quiet 
place, and music is the only noise allowed. I’ll take you in 
to see the prettiest little girl you’ve ever seen, and she’s lying 
so still. I’ve brought her some forget-me-nots.” 

Prince struggled a little at first, but Betty soothed him and 
then crept inside. 

“I’m afraid I’ve come too late,” she murmured, as she 
looked round the silent church and saw no signs of the lady ; 
“ but I’ll come another day soon and see her.” 

Softly she made her way round to the stained-glass window 
she loved, but started in astonishment when she saw leaning 
against the monument a tall, strange gentleman. 

He did not see Betty. His brows were knitted and his 
lips twitching strangely under his heavy, dark mustache. With 
folded arms he stood leaning against the pillar, and looking 
down upon the fair figure of the recumbent child in front of 
him ; then he stooped, and, taking up one of the fading lilies 
across the child’s hands, looked at it wonderingly. 

“ The picture more lasting than the thing itself,” he mut- 
tered ; “ it is all that is left us. The fragile productions of 
nature cannot exist long in this hard, rough world, and yet 
how I tried to shield her from every blast!” 

46 


Prince 





A slight whine from Prince startled him, and looking round 
he pulled himself together sternly. 

“ What are you doing here, little girl? ” 

Almost the same words that had been said to her in the 
wood the other day ; and Betty began to wonder if sh2 were 
again on forbidden ground. 

“ Does the church belong to you? ” she asked, standing 
her ground and looking up through her long, dark lashes 
rather shyly. “Am I where I oughtn’t to be? I came to 
see that little girl.” 

He looked at her. 

“ What do you know about her? ” 

“I don’t know anything, but I want to know. I love 
her, and I’ve brought her some more flowers.” 

“ Did you put these lilies here? ” 

“ Yes ; they’re quite dead now, aren’t they? ” 

“ Of course they are ; this is the place of death.” 

Betty did not understand the bitter tone, but she said 
simply, pointing to the child’s figure, “ She isn’t really dead, 
is she? She has gone to sleep. I was thinking when I was 
here before, if Jesus would only just walk out of that window 
and touch her hands with His, she would open her eyes and 
get up. I should like to see her, wouldn’t you? I watched 
her the other day till I almost thought I saw her move. But 
she will wake up one day, won’t she? ” 

There was no answer. 

Betty slipped her little hand in his. “ Would you give her 
these forget-me-nots, or lift me up so that I can do it? ” She 
had dropped Prince, who was sniffing suspiciously round the 
gentleman’s heels, and waited anxiously for his reply. He 
took her in his arms, and held her there while she placed the 
flowers in the position she wished ; and then, before she was 
lifted down, she said softly, “ I think she is really singing up 


The Odd One 


in heaven. I like to believe she is there, but I’m not quite 
sure. Do you know if she came out of tribulation? ” 

“ Why should she?” 

“ Because it says, about those in white robes with crowns : 
‘ These are they which came out of great tribulation, and 
have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb.’ It makes me feel very unhappy sometimes 
because I haven’t been through tribulation yet, and I sha’n’t 
be ready to die till I have.” 

She was set quickly down upon her feet, and without a 
word the gentleman left her, striding down the aisle and 
shutting the church door with a slam that echoed and re- 
echoed through the silent church. 

Betty was startled at his sudden departure. She took up 
her dog in her arms again, and stood gazing silently up at 
the window above, through which the setting sun was send- 
ing colored rays in all directions ; then with a little sigh she 
turned and left the church. Outside the porch was a gray- 
headed old man, the sexton, who was taking his evening walk 
among the graves. 

“ Hulloo! ” he said, “be you the one that banged this ’ere 
door just now? ’Twas enough to scare the owls and bats 
and all the other beasties from their holes forevermore.” 

“ No, it wasn’t me ; it was a gentleman.” 

“Ah, was it, now? Shouldn’t be surprised if I knew who 
it was! ’Twas Mr. Russell, surely! There’s no other gent 
that favors this ’ere buildin’ like him.” 

“ Is he Violet Russell’s father? ” questioned Betty, eagerly. 

The old man nodded. “Yes, he be that little maid’s 
parent, and he’ll never get over her loss. She were the apple 
of his eye, and when she were took he were like a man de- 
mented. Ah, ’tis the young as well as the old I have to dig 
for!” 

48 


Prince 


“ Does that gentleman live here? ” asked Betty. 

“ Aye, surely, for he be the owner of the whole property 
hereabout. But ’tis not money will give comfort ; he have 
had a deal o’ trouble. I mind when his father turned him 
out o’ doors for his paintin’ and sich like persoots. And he 
went to Italy, and there he taught hisself to be a hartist, and 
painted and carved a lot o’ stone figures ; and folks say he 
made a name for hisself in the big city. He were taken 
back by his father after a bit, and came a-coortin’ Miss 
Violet Granger, that lived over at Deemster Hall. But his 
brother, Mr. Rudolph, cut him out when he went off to Ger- 
many for a spell, and he and Miss Violet runned away to- 
gether, and when he come back he found his bride stolen. 
He were terrible cut up, and off he goes to foreign parts again ; 
and never a sight of he did us get till the old squire were 
dead, and Mr. Rudolph had killed hisself out huntin’. Then 
Mr. Frank comes home agen with a brand-new wife, and we 
thought as how his life were a-mendin’ and things were look- 
in’ up. He seemed brighter too ; but lackaday ! ’twere not 
ten months afore I had to dig a grave for her ; and she left 
him a two-day-old babe to bring up. And little Miss Violet 
were the joy of his heart ; she were a purty, bright little maid, 
and were out on her little pony every day wi’ her father. She 
just doted on him, and he were as lovin’ as a woman wi’ 
her. Then there come the day when the little maid got a 
ugly fall from her pony, and all the City doctors were sent 
for, but could do no good; and she were in bed a-wastin’ 
away for nigh a twelvemonth, and then she died. ’Twere a 
mercy, for she’d have been a hunchbacked cripple had she 
lived ; and Mary Foster, what were her maid, said as ’ow she 
suffered terrible at times. The Lord were marciful in takin’ 
of her; but ’tis not to be wondered at Mr. Frank takin’ it 
sorely. And then he shut hisself up in his paintin’-room, 

49 



The Odd One 



and never corned out of it till he had cut the little maid’s 
figure out in stone, like as you see it in the church. Many’s 
the visitor that I’ve a-taken in to see it, and the ladies they 
comes away sheddin’ tears at the little dear. He put up the 
colored window, too, and comes to church reg’lar ; but he’s 
hard and cold like the stones he cut, and ’tis his troubles have 
spoiled him. I mind he were a bright-faced, bonny lad 
once, that I used to show birds’ nests to in the hedges ; 
but now he passes me wi’out a civil word or look. Aye, 
it’s trouble and toil and tribbylation that is man’s lot here 
below! ” 

Betty listened to this long harangue breathlessly. Much 
of it she could not follow, but the old man’s closing sentence 
made her look at him eagerly. 

“ Do you know about tribulation? ” she asked. 

“ Me know of it! Aye, surely, when I’ve buried six sons 
and daughters, and last of all my woife, and dug all their 
graves mysel’, save two, which were Jack in foreign parts 
which died of yellow fever, and only a packet of letters, 
sent back to us belongin’ to him, and in them there were a 
bit o’ his mother’s gray hair, which he had cut off that play- 
ful afore he went away. And then there were Rob, that 
were killed down a coal-mine, and we could never get at his 
body ; and he left a widder and three childer, and she were 
married to one o’ his chums afore a twelvemonth past — the 
unfeelin’ hussy; but I’ve washed my hands of the lot. 
Aye, I’ve been through troubles and tribbylation, which is 
our lot in this world ; but I’ve had a many more than most 
folks.” 

“ Then you must be quite ready to die? ” said Betty, look- 
ing at him thoughtfully. 

The old man looked at her, then rubbed his head in a 
puzzled way. 

50 


Prince 


“ no’ so sure about that, little lassie. I’ve seen scores 
brought into this churchyard and placed in my graves, but 
there are toimes when I think o’ seein’ rnysel’ let down into 
a strange grave, and one not cut half so foine as mine ; for 
I’m up to my trade, and none could do it better; and I’m 
thinkin’ if that day will wait till I’m ready for it— well, ’twill 
be a good way off yet! ” 

Betty knitted her brows in perplexity. 

“ If you’ve been through tribulation, you must be very 
nearly ready for heaven— the Bible says so.” 

“ Aye, do it? Let’s hear, missy ; for sure I’ve had my lot 
o’ woe, and the Lord do be marciful!” 

For a second time that afternoon Betty repeated the text 
that was so occupying her mind and thoughts. The old man 
listened attentively. 

“ You see,” said Betty, leaning against an old yew-tree and 
hugging Prince close to her, “ it’s the first part that’s so diffi- 
cult to me, but it must be quite easy for you. The end of 
it fits us all, but the tribulation doesn’t fit me.’-’ 

“And what be the end of it? ” asked the sexton. 

“ It says they washed their robes, and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb.” 

“ Aye,” said the old man, after a minute’s silence, “ and ’tis 
the end of it don’t fit me.” 

The child looked up, astonishment coming into her blue 
eyes. 

“ But that’s very easy,” she said ; “ that is coming to Jesus 
and asking Him to wash our sins away in His blood. I 
thought everybody did that. I do it every night, because 
I’m an awful wicked girl. I’m always forgetting to be good.” 

Again there was silence. The old man looked away over 
the hills in the distance. It was just the quietest time in the 
evening ; the birds were already in their nests for the night, 

51 



The Odd One 



—even the rooks had subsided,— and the stillness and peace 
around drew his heart and mind upward. Betty thought he 
was looking at the sunset, which was shedding its last golden 
rays over the misty blue outlines of the hills across the hori- 
zon. Presently he drew the cuff of his sleeve across his eyes. 
“And who be they that the Book says that of? ” he asked. 

“Why, it’s the people in heaven — every one who dies, I 
s’pose. I like to think of them there ; but I do want dread- 
fully to join them one day, and Pm afraid sometimes I shall 
be left out.” 

Tears were filling the earnest little eyes, and the curly head 
bent over Prince to hide them. 

“ I mind,” said the sexton, slowly, “ that my missis, before 
she died, told me to pray, ‘ Wash me, and I shall be whiter 
than snow.’ I expect she knew all about the washin’, but 
I’ve never done much harm to any one, and I’ve attended 
church reg’lar.” 

“ I wish I was as good as you.” And Betty looked up 
with emphatic utterance. “ I’m always doing some one 
harm ; and nurse will scold me when I get in for being out 
so late — I know she will. Good-by, old man.” 

She put Prince down on the ground and trotted off, and 
the old sexton looked after her with a shake of his head. 

“ She be a queer little lass! Aye, I would be glad to have 
her chance of gettin’ to the kingdom. But I’ll have a look 
at the old Book and see what it says about this ’ere washin’.” 



VI 


MADE INTO A COUPLE 


The next morning being Sunday, the three elder children 
were taken to church by nurse. It was a small village con- 
gregation, and Betty looked round in vain for her friend 
Nesta. She saw Mr. Russell standing grim and solitary in 
his large, old-fashioned pew, and she had a nod from the 
sexton at the church door. The clergyman’s wife and grown- 
up daughter and a few grandly dressed farmers’ wives were 
the only others who occupied seats of their own. The organ 
was played by the schoolmaster, and after Nesta’s playing it 
did not seem the same instrument. Betty was quieter than 
her brother and sister. She could see her stained window 
and little Violet’s figure from where she sat ; she could even 
catch sight of her forget-me-nots, now looking withered and 
dead ; and her thoughts kept her restless little body still. 
Molly and Douglas did not like church ; their fair heads 
were close together, and occasionally a faint sniggle would 
cause nurse to look round with stern reproval. But at last 
the long service was over, and they came out into the fresh, 
sweet air of a June morning. 

Nurse had several friends to talk to in the churchyard, 
and Molly and Betty walked on soberly in front of her, feel- 
ing subdued and a little uncomfortable in their stiff white 
frocks and best Leghorn hats and feathers. 



53 


The Odd One 


“Where is Douglas? ” whispered Betty. 

“ Hush! don’t let nurse know ; he saw a pair of legs through 
a little hole at the back of the organ, and he’s gone to see if 
it is a robber hiding.” 

“ Will he fight him if it is? ” said Betty, with an awe-struck 
look. Then, an expression of relief crossing her face, she 
said, “ I know ; it’s a boy that goes in at the back whenever 
a person plays. I don’t know what he does, but I’ve seen 
him there before.” 

“When did you see him? ” asked Molly, eagerly. 

Betty’s private adventures never remained secret for long, 
and she poured forth a long account of her various visits to 
the church. Molly was much impressed, but Douglas’s re- 
turn soon turned her thoughts into another channel. He 
looked flushed and disheveled, and his white sailor suit was 
soiled and dusty; but nurse was too busy talking to notice 
his appearance, and he joined the others with some impor- 
tance in his tone. 

“ I’ve made a discovery,” he said. “ How do you think 
a church organ is played? ” 

“ Like a piano,” said Molly, promptly. 

“ It isn’t, then ; you turn a handle like the organs in the 
street, and a man or boy does all the work behind.” 

The little girls looked skeptical, and Betty said, “ I’m sure 
you don’t, then, for we can see the person playing.” 

“Well, they’re only pretending; I’ve seen the handle my- 
self, and the boy told me if he didn’t pull it up and down 
the organ wouldn’t play. It must be like a kind of duet, 
perhaps. I expect he makes all the big, booming notes, and 
the squeaky notes are made by the person in front. I’ve 
promised him a part of my money if he’ll let me play instead 
of him one day, and he says he will.” 

“Nurse won’t let you play it on Sundays,” said Molly; 
54 



Made into a Couple 

“besides, you won’t be able to do it properly, and if you 
made a mistake it would be awful.” 

“ I shall play it on a week-day, and I’ll make the old 
organ sound, you see if I don’t! ” 

Directly the children reached home Betty flew to her dog, 
who had been shut up in the garret while they had been at 
church. Prince was already getting to know his little mis- 
tress, and welcomed her back with short, happy barks and a 
great many licks ; and Betty poured out all her heart’s love 
for him in the shape of caresses and pats and kisses, whisper- 
ing in his silken ears many a secret, and hugging him to her 
breast with a passionate vehemence which astonished and 
amused those who saw her. 

“ He is my own, my very own,” she kept repeating, “ and 
I shall never feel odd no more!” 

She did not. It was a new and delightful sensation to be 
one of a couple. “ Molly and Douglas, Bobby and Billy, 
and Prince and I,” she would say. No longer was she to 
trot off alone in some of their games — Prince was always 
ready to go with her; if Molly and Douglas were deep in 
some conspiracy, so could she and Prince be ; and the pent- 
up feelings and thoughts of rather a lonely little heart were 
poured out to one who listened and sympathized with his 
soft brown eyes and curly tail, but who never betrayed the 
confidence reposed in him. 

At no time in her life had Betty been so happy as she was 
now; her little, pensive face sparkled with gladness when 
Prince gamboled by her side ; and nurse asserted that the 
dog kept her out of mischief and was a very successful 
addition to their party. It was some days before she visited 
the church again, but when she did the organ was sounding, 
and she found her friend already playing. Rolling Prince 
up in her large holland overall until only his little black nose 

55 



The Odd One 



peeped out, Betty crept up close to the player and stood 
unnoticed for some minutes. Then Nesta Fairfax turned 
round and gave the child a pleased smile. 

“ My little friend again!” she said. “I have been won- 
dering what has become of you. Have you come for a talk? ” 

“No; only to listen to the music,” said Betty. 

“ Then I will go on playing.” 

She turned back to the organ, and for some time Betty 
listened in silence, sitting on a hassock and rocking Prince 
backward and forward, till, warm and exhausted with his 
ineffectual struggles to free himself, he fell asleep in her 
arms. 

At last, when there was a pause in the music, Betty said 
earnestly : 

“ Will you sing again what you did when I thought you 
were an angel ? ” 

“ What was it, I wonder? ” 

“ It was about 1 these are they which came out of great 
tribulation’! ” 

“ Oh yes, I remember.” 

And the sweet, clear voice rang out through the silent 
church, and the organ rose and fell to the beautiful words, 
till Betty could hardly bear it. 

“Is it over? ” she asked as the last note died away. 

Nesta Fairfax turned her glowing face upon the child. 

“ You love it as much as I do, you little mite! ” she said ; 
“but you mustn’t cry. Do you know where those words 
come from? ” 

She put her arms round her and drew her to rest against 
her as she spoke. 

“Yes,” said Betty, with a nod; “I know all about them. 
I’ve read it sixty hundred times, I think, and I know that 
verse by heart. I want to ask you about it.” 

56 

t 

i 



Made into a Couple 


Nesta waited, and with a little effort Betty said: 

“ I want dreadfully to be one of them one day, and I’m 
afraid I never shall. I was talking to the old man who digs 
graves the other day ; the first part of the verse doesn’t fit 
me, and the last doesn’t fit him— at least he said so. I 
wonder if both parts fit you? ” 

Nesta gazed at Betty in a puzzled kind of way, then 
looked away, for her eyes were filling with tears. 

“ Perhaps it may,” she said softly ; “ I should like to think 
it did.” 

“ And can you tell me how I can go through tribulation ? 
I want to get it over, so that I can be quite ready for heaven.’’ 

“ My dear child, if God means you to have it, He will 
send it in His own good time. Never wish for troubles; 
they will come fast enough as you grow older.” 

“ That’s what nurse says ; she tells us when we get to her 
age we shall know what distress and trouble is. But s’posing 
if I don’t live to grow up? Violet didn’t. And I’m so 
afraid I may not get inside heaven. I may be left out of 
those in the text, because I haven’t been through tribulation. 
I don’t want to be left out. I want to be in the very middle 
of them all! I want to stand singing, and have a crown and 
a palm, and I want to hear some one ask who I am; and 
then I want to hear the answer, ‘ She came out of tribulation ! ’ 
Oh, do tell me how I can go into it! Mr. Roper said you 
would teach me a lot of things.” 

Betty’s voice was eloquent in her beseeching tone, and 
Nesta was silent for a moment ; then she said : 

“ Trouble doesn’t take us to heaven ; tribulation, even 
martyrdom, does not. Don’t you know what does? What 
did Jesus Christ come into the world for? What did He 
die for? Will you sing a little hymn with me? I expect 
you know it.” 




57 


The Odd One 



Betty looked delighted. 

“And will you play the organ? ” 

“Yes.” 

Then Nesta began to sing, and Betty’s sweet little voice 
chimed in, for well she knew the words : 

‘ ‘ There is a green hill far away, 

Beyond the city wall, 

Where our dear Lord was crucified. 

Who died to save us all. 


We may not know, we cannot tell. 
What pains He had to bear; 

But we believe it was for us 
He hung and suffered there. 

He died that we may be forgiven, 
He died to make us good, 

That we might go at last to heaven, 
Saved by His precious blood. 

There was no other good enough 
To pay the price of sin ; 

He only could unlock the gate 
Of heaven and let us in. 

“ Oh, dearly, dearly has He loved, 
And we must love Him too, 

And trust in His redeeming blood, 
And try His works to do.” 


“ Now can you tell me why the Lord Jesus Christ died? 
What does the hymn say? ” 

“He died that we may be forgiven, 

He died to make us good,” 

quoted Betty, slowly. 


“ That we might go at last to heaven, 
Saved by His precious blood.” 


Made into a Couple 

“Then how can we get to heaven? ” 

“Because Jesus died for us.” 

“Yes, He died to let you go to heaven, Betty; He did it 
all, and you have nothing to do with it. If you let Jesus 
take your little heart and wash it in His blood, nothing will 
ever keep you out of heaven.” 

“But if I’m naughty?” asked Betty. “I’ve asked God 
so often to give me a new heart and wash me in Jesus’ blood, 
and sometimes I think He has done it ; but then I’m always 
getting into mischief, and nurse says it’s only the good chil- 
dren go to heaven.” 

“ I think Jesus will teach you to be good if you ask Him, 
and you mustn’t expect to be quite good all at once. Always 
go to Him when you’ve been naughty, and tell Him about 
it, and ask Him to help you to be good. He loves you, 
Betty, and He will always listen to you and answer your 
prayers.” 

Betty’s blue eyes were looking intently at the speaker, and 
her little lips took a resolute curve. 

“ I will be good,” she said ; “ I do love Jesus, and I’ll ask 
Him all day long to keep me from being naughty.” 

Then after a pause she said : 

“ Have you gone through tribulation? ” 

“ I have had a great deal of trouble.” And a sad look 
came over Nesta’s face. 

“ My old man said he had had a lot of trouble, and he 
told me Mr. Russell had. Trouble always means people 
dying, doesn’t it? ” 

“ There are troubles worse than death,” Nesta said gravely ; 
** God grant you may never know such!” Then with a 
change of tone she said brightly, “ Don’t look for trouble, 
darling; Jesus means you to be happy. Now shall we sing 
one more hymn? and then I must go.” 


59 


The Odd One 


Betty joined in delightedly when Nesta began : 
“ There’s a friend for little children.” 



After it was finished Nesta asked: 

“ What did you mean, Betty, by saying that a Mr. Roper 
had told you I would teach you? Who is Mr. Roper? ” 

Betty told her, repeating as much of the conversation she 
had had with him as she could remember ; and Nesta laughed 
aloud when she discovered the origin of the “lady who 
taught.” 

“ He meant Mother Nature, Betty — a very different teacher 
to me.” 

“ Do you know her, then? Where does she live? ” 

“ I will take you to see her when next we meet. You 
see her every day, Betty. Now I must go. Good-by. 
Is this a little doggy you have rolled up in your pina- 
fore? I thought it was a doll. Now, Dick, you can come 
out.” 

Dick Green, a heavy-looking village boy, appeared from 
behind the organ and followed Miss Fairfax down the aisle. 
But Betty waited; she had brought two roses with her for 
Violet’s monument, and she went to the seat upon which she 
had laid them, and took them round to the other side of the 
church, where she deposited them in the usual place. Then 
calling Prince, who had been awakened from his sleep and 
was now inspecting every corner of the church with nose and 
paws, Betty set off homeward. 

Nesta Fairfax had comforted her, but had not entirely 
satisfied her perplexed little heart, and the busy brain was 
still trying to solve the problem. 

Betty was not the only visitor to the church that day. 

Douglas disappeared after tea, and after nearly two hours’ 
absence returned, hot, tired, and very cross. 

60 


Made into a Couple 

At last he confided to Molly that he had been to play the 
organ. 

“ And I’m awfully afraid I’ve broken the horrid old thing, 
and I don’t like that Dick Green! He took my money 
and ran off, and I worked the handle up and down for hours ; 
he told me the music would come in about a quarter of an 
hour. It never did, but the organ gave great gasps and 
groans ; you never heard such a noise— just like Mr. Giles 
when he goes to sleep after tea! It’s awfully hard work 
pulling the handle up and down ; I hope I haven’t broke it. 
I think it wants some one to play on the front of it, but the 
front part is locked up. But I’ve had a kind of adventure. 
When I came out there was a strange gentleman looking at 
one of the graves in the church, so I went up to see what he 
was looking at, and it was the stone image of a little girl, and 
there were some pink roses in her hands.” 

Betty edged up close to her brother as he got thus far and 
asked eagerly, “ What did he say about the roses? ” 

“ He looked at me with an awful frown, and I folded my 
arms and frowned back— like this.” 

And Douglas rumpled his fair brow into many creases, 
and looked so ferocious that Molly was quite awed, though 
disrespectful Betty laughed aloud. 

‘ ‘What are you doing here?’ he said. ‘Did you put 
these roses here? ’ 

“‘No,’ I said. ‘Oughtn’t they to be there? I’ll take 
them away.’ And then he frowned worse than ever and said, 
‘ Don’t you dare to lay a finger on them! ’ and then he mut- 
tered something about the church being always full of chil- 
dren now. But I didn’t listen to him much; I was busy 
looking at the little girl and thinking, and then I made up a 
beautiful story on the spot ; it’s something like some of the 
fairy stories we read in our big books. I’ll tell it to you in 

61 



The Odd One 


a minute. I said to him that I thought I could tell him 
where the roses came from. And he said, i Where? ’ And 
then I said to him that the little girl was a sleeping beauty 
waiting for a prince to come along and kiss her and wake 
her up ; but he hadn’t come yet, so a fairy was watching her 
till he came, and every moonlight night she would bring some 
flowers in, and creep inside them and sleep with her to keep 
all the goblins off, and she would sing her songs in the night, 
and tell her stories, and comfort her — ” 

“ But,” interrupted Molly, “if she was asleep, how could 
she hear the fairy? ” 

“You’re too sharp! Perhaps you’ll wait. I was just 
going to say that in the night she was able to open her eyes, 
only she couldn’t get up. I had just got as far as that when 
the gentleman said, ' Pshaw!’ and then he told me to run 
off, and not come into the church again to tomfool — that’s 
what he said. He was a kind of dark, grim-looking ogre, 
and I’ll — well, I shall have more to do with him yet!” 

This awful threat was accompanied with a very significant 
shake of the flaxen head ; but Betty cried out hotly : 

“You don’t know anything about it! He’s the father of 
that little girl, and he goes to her grave to say his prayers 
and cry. I know more about him than you do, so there! ” 

“ What do you know? ” 

But Betty walked off, hugging Prince under her arm, and 
calling out as she went, with a spice of superiority in her 
tone, “ Prince and I know all about him and her and the 
roses ; that’s our secret.” 



62 


HAYMAKING 


It was only a few days after this that nurse took all the 
children to tea at an old farm-house about two miles off. 
They rode part of the way in a farm-wagon, and were all in 
the best of spirits, for it was haymaking time — a time of en- 
trancing joy to all children, and to the little Stuarts a new 
and delightful experience. They had tea out in one of the 
fields under a shady elm, and were just separating after it 
was over to have one more romp in the hay, when, to Betty’s 
intense surprise, who should come across the field but Nesta 
Fairfax. She evidently knew Mrs. Crump, the farmer’s wife, 
well, for she sat down and began chatting away about all her 
family, and then she caught sight of Betty. 

“ Why, it’s my little friend ! ” she said, stooping down and 
kissing her ; “ and are these your brothers and sister ? ” 

Betty got crimson with delight, and introduced one after 
the other with great importance, and Nesta won all their 
hearts at once by joining them in their frolic. Her laugh 
was as gay as theirs, and she could run as fast as any of 
them. 

“You’re rather a nice grown-up person,” said Douglas, 
approvingly, as at last she took her leave ; “ you aren’t so 
dull and stupid as grown-up people generally are. Will you 

63 


The Odd One 



come and see us one day at our farm? I’ll take you to see 
the sweetest white mice in the stable that Sam keeps, and 
there’s heaps of easy trees to climb in the orchard if you like 
climbing! ” 

“And I’ll show you a baby calf only two days old,” put 
in Molly, “ and three black-and-white kittens in a loft, with 
a lot of apples one end ; we’ve jolly things at our farm, if 
you’ll only come.” 

“ And a see-saw and a swing,” added the twins. 

“And what will Betty show me? ” asked Nesta, amused. 

“ I think I’ll show you the flowers, and the forget-me-nots, 
and water-cress in the brook,” said Betty, meditatively. 

“ Then I really must come, with such an enchanting pro- 
gram before me,” said Nesta. And she kissed them all round, 
told nurse she envied her her little family, cracked some jokes 
with old Crump and his wife, and departed, leaving behind 
her a breezy brightness and cheeriness that she brought with 
her wherever she came. 

“ A pleasant young lady,” said nurse ; “ who is she, Mrs. 
Crump?” 

“ Ah, well,” said Mrs. Crump, shaking her head solemnly, 
“ there’s a sad story attached to the family. My niece, what 
the master and I have brought up like one of ouf own chil- 
dren, has got the sitivation as maid to Mrs. Fairfax, and she 
knows all the ins and outs of their trouble as no one else do. 
You see, this is how it is. They were a City family, and 
come down here first for change of air. They took lodgings 
in Mrs. Twist’s farm ; there were Mrs. Fairfax and the two 
young ladies, and a dashing young gentleman, the son, who 
came down for a day or two at a time, but he never stayed 
long. Mrs. Fairfax were proud as proud could be, and very 
cold and stern like, except to her son, so Jane says ; and him 
she couldn’t do enough for— her heart was just bound up in 


64 


Haymaking 


him! Jane went back with them to the City, but she says 
the way the young gentleman went on were enough to break 
any mother’s heart. He was fast going to the bad ; and yet 
his mother, though she would scold and fume at times, never 
seemed to see it, and paid his debts and let him have his 
fling. Miss Nesta were engaged to be married, and Jane 
says her lover did all he could to stand by her brother and 
keep him straight, but it weren’t no good whatever. And 
about two year ago the end came. Mr. Arthur had some 
trouble over a gaming-table ; that was the beginning ; then 
he went and signed a bank-check that wasn’t his,— I believe 
as how it is called forging,— and the gentleman whose check 
it was had him up in court ; he wouldn’t hush it up, and it 
was the talk of all the City, so Jane tells me. His mother 
would have paid up, though it would have ruined her, but 
she weren’t allowed ; and he were sent to prison across the 
seas for seventeen years. Jane says Mrs. Fairfax seemed 
turned to stone ; she shut up the City house and went abroad 
to some foreign place with a long name — I forgets it now; 
and then she comes back and takes Holly Grange, which is 
as nice an old house as ever you see, and belonged to a 
Colonel Sparks who died only a twelvemonth ago, and is 
about a mile from here, over against that wood you see 
yonder. But I’m tiring of you with this long tale.” 

“ I like to hear it,” said nurse ; and so did Betty, though 
a good deal of it was incomprehensible to her. She sat with 
Prince in her arms on the grass close by, and her quick little 
ears were listening to every word. 

“Well,” said Mrs. Crump, with a sigh, “there ain’t much 
more to tell. Jane says Mrs. Fairfax shuts herself up and 
won’t see a single visitor. Miss Grace, the eldest daughter, 
who was never very strong, has become a confirmed invalid, 
with very crotchety and fidgety ways, and makes every one 

65 




The Odd One 


miserable who comes near her. Miss Nesta is the only one 
that keeps bright; and Jane says her temper is that sweet, 
she bears with all her sister’s crossness and unreasonableness, 
and her mother’s icy coldness, like an angel. She have had 
her troubles, too, poor thing! Jane tells me that it was Mrs. 
Fairfax made her break off her engagement with her lover ; 
he were some relative of the gentleman that lost the check, 
and she wouldn’t have the engagement go on on no account. 
Jane says her lover had a talk with Mrs. Fairfax; and he 
were rather a high and mighty gentleman, and he left the 
room as white as death, and declared he would never set 
foot in the house again. Jane thinks Mrs. Fairfax was be- 
side herself at the time and must have insulted him fearful. 
Anyhow, it all came to an end. It’s a world of trouble, Mrs. 
Duff. But I feel very sorry for Miss Nesta. The other 
ladies hardly ever leave the house or grounds, and they would 
like to keep Miss Nesta in as well; but she comes across to 
me and has a chat, and she reads a chapter and has prayers 
with grandfather. She’s a very good young lady, and no one 
would think, to look at her, what she have come through.” 

“ Has she come through tribulation? ” asked Betty, look- 
ing up suddenly. 

“Well, I never did! To think of that child a-taking it 
all in! ” ejaculated Mrs. Crump. “ What do you know about 
tribulation, little missy? ” 

“ It means trouble or distress, I know.” And Betty’s face 
was very wistful as she spoke. 

“ Run along and play with the others,” said nurse, quickly, 
“and don’t worry your head over other people’s troubles. 
There is plenty of it in the world, but your time hasn’t come 
for it yet.” 

“ I wish it would come,” said Betty, softly, “ and then I 
could put myself in that text,” 

66 


Haymaking 

But only Prince heard the whispered words, and he wagged 
his tail in sympathy. 

It was that night that Betty added another clause to her 
evening prayers. She generally said them aloud at nurse’s 
knee, but it was not the first time that she had said, “ I want 
to whisper quite a secret to God,” and nurse always let her 
have her way. 

“ She is a queer little thing,” she told her brother ; “ some- 
times naughtier and more contrary than all the rest put to- 
gether, and sometimes so angel-like that I wonder if she won’t 
have an early death. But there’s no knowing how to take 
her! ” 

Betty’s secret was this : 

“ And please, God^forgive Prince his sins and take him to 
heaven when he dies, and let me come through great tribu- 
lation, so that I may be like your people in heaven.” 

When haymaking commenced at Brook Farm the children’s 
delight knew no bounds. Every moment of the day they 
were out in the fields, and as the great cart-loads of hay 
were driven off they felt proud and pleased with having 
helped in the work. Prince enjoyed it as much as any one, 
but he never left his little mistress’s side for long. One 
evening, as the tired haymakers were resting after having 
placed the last load on the wagon, Betty, dancing by the 
cart, was inspired to ascend the ladder which had been left 
against it. 

“Come on,” she shouted to Douglas and Molly, “and 
we’ll have a ride home.” 

Up they went, unnoticed by any, and danced up and down 
with delight when they reached the top. Then nurse dis- 
covered them, and in her fright and anxiety at their risky 
position she rushed toward them and screamed aloud. The 
horses, startled, swerved hastily aside, and Douglas, danger- 

67 



The Odd One 



ously near the edge, overbalanced himself and fell with a 
terrible thud to the ground. It was the work of a moment 
to seize him and drag him from the wheels, which'mercifully 
did not touch him ; but he was carried into the house stunned 
and insensible, and Molly and Betty, with scared, white faces, 
were taken down and sent indoors. 

“ It’s your fault,” whispered Molly to the frightened Betty ; 
“you made us come up. And now Douglas will die! I 
think he’s dead already. You’ll be a murderer, and you’ll 
be sent to prison and hung! ” 

And Betty quite believed this assertion, and crept up to 
the passage outside Douglas’s bedroom, trembling with ex- 
citement and fright. She crouched down in a corner, and 
Prince came up, put his two paws on her shoulder, and licked 
her face with a little wistful whine. It was a long time be- 
fore nurse came out of the room, and then she wasted very 
few words on the little culprit. 

“ Go to bed, you naughty child, and tell Miss Molly to 
go too. You are never safe from mischief, and it’s a mercy 
your brother hasn’t been killed.” 

“ Will he get better, nurse? ” 

But nurse made no reply, and both little girls were long 
before they got to sleep that night, so fearful were their 
conjectures as to the fate of their brother. 

Douglas was only stunned for the time and very much 
bruised and shaken. Nurse kept him in bed for two or three 
days, and the two little girls were unremitting in their care 
and attention. He accepted their services with much com- 
placency, and enjoyed his important and interesting position. 

“ What would you two girls have done if I had died? ” he 
asked. “ Who would have been your leader then? ” 

“ You’re not my leader,” said Betty, promptly. “No one 
is my leader ; I lead myself.” 

68 


Haymaking 

“ I don’t know what I should have done,” said Molly, 
pensively. “ I should have had to go about with Betty then. 
You see, I should have her, and the twins have themselves. 
I don’t think Bobby and Billy would miss any of us much if 
we were to die. We should be equal if you died, Douglas 
— two and two ; but I’m glad you’re going to get better.” 

“You wouldn’t have gone about with me, Molly,” said 
Betty, with a decisive shake of her head, as she stooped to 
caress Prince at her feet, " because you would have been one 
too many. We are two and two without you. I don’t want 
any one with me but Prince. You would have to be the 
odd one if Douglas died, like I used to be.” 

“ Prince is only a dog,” said Molly, with a little curl of 
her lip. “ I wouldn’t make two with a dog.” 

Betty’s eyes sparkled dangerously. 

“ Prince is ever so much nicer than you are — much nicer ; 
and you’re jealous because he likes me and not you. He’s 
my very own, and I love him, and he loves me ; and I love 
him better than all the people in the world put together, so 
there!” 

“You needn’t get in a temper. He’s a silly, stupid kind 
of a dog, and Mr. Giles said yesterday, if he caught him 
chasing his sheep round the field, he would give him a good 
beating ; and I hope he will, for he nearly chased the sheep 
yesterday.” 

“ When you two have done fighting, I should like to speak. 
My head aches. I think I should like some of the jelly nurse 
made for me ; it will make it better.” 

The little girls’ rising wrath subsided. Both rushed to 
fulfil Douglas’s desire ; for had not nurse left them in charge, 
and had she not also warned them against exciting him by 
loud talking and noise? 

“ I’m glad you will get better,” said Betty, presently. “ I 

69 


The Odd One 

saw Miss Fairfax in church yesterday, and she asked me how 
you were.” 

“What were you doing in church? ” demanded Douglas. 
“ It wasn’t Sunday.” 

“ Prince and I go to church very often,” said Betty, putting 
on a prim little air. “We have several businesses there, but 
we don’t tell every one what we do.” 

“ Do you play the organ? ” asked Douglas, a little eagerly. 

“ No; but we hear it played, and we sing, and we— well, 
we do lots of other things.” 

“ I shall come with you next time you go.” And Doug- 
las’s tone was firm. 

“No,” said Betty; “you’ll be one too many. I don’t 
want Molly, and I don’t want you. I’ve got Prince, and I 
don’t want no one else.” 

It was thus she aired her triumphs daily, and it was by 
such speeches that she revealed how much she had felt and 
suffered in times past by being so constantly left out in the 
cold. And Prince was daily becoming more and more com- 
panionable. Not one doubt did Betty ever entertain as to 
his not understanding or caring for her long confidences. He 
slept in a little basket at the foot of her bed. She was 
wakened by his wet kisses in the morning, and he liked noth- 
ing better than snuggling into bed with her. Tucking his 
little black nose under her soft chin, he would place a paw 
on each of her shoulders and settle off into a reposeful sleep ; 
while Betty would lie perfectly still, gazing at him with loving 
eyes, and every now and then giving him a gentle squeeze 
and murmuring, “You’re my very own, my darling, and I 
love you.” 



70 


VIII 

GOD'S PATCHWORK 

“ Good-mornin’ to you, little maid.” 

Betty and Prince had been straying through the lanes, and 
had suddenly come upon the old sexton, who was leaning 
over his cottage gate smoking a short clay pipe. 

Betty’s face dimpled with smiles. 

“May I come in and see your little house?” she asked. 
“ Prince and I want something to do. Douglas and Molly 
are lying in a hammock and making up stories, and the twins 
are no company.” 

“ Come in, come in, my dear, and welcome ; but ’tis a 
lonesome kind o’ home with only me in it ; ’twas very differ- 
ent once on a time.” 

He led the way up a narrow path through rows of cab- 
bages and sweet peas, and ushered her into a tiny kitchen, 
clean, but rather untidy. Betty looked round with a child’s 
admiring eyes. There were great shells on the mantelpiece, 
a stuffed owl on a sideboard, and lots of other quaint curi- 
osities on some shelves in a recess. 

Then she climbed into a big rocking-chair. 

“ This is lovely,” she said ; “ it’s almost as good as a rock- 
ing-horse, if you go very fast.” 

The old man stood looking at her for a minute, then seated 

71 



The Odd One 


himself on the low window-seat and went on smoking. When 
Betty had swung herself violently to and fro for some min- 
utes, she asked : 

“ Have you been busy digging graves to-day? ” 

“No; ’tis a fortnight since I had one ; the season has bin 
rare and healthy.” 

“ Then what have you been doing? ” demanded the child. 

“ Oh, I don’t let the time slip by ; there are a many things 
I turn my hand to. I digs my ’taters up, and gardens a bit 
first thing in the mornin’, and I cleans up in my churchyard, 
and then I cooks a bit o’ dinner and has a bit o’ gossip with 
my neighbors. I’m a sociable sort o’ chap, though I’m so 
lonesome. And I has a bit o’ readin’ on occasions. Are 
you a-thinkin’ any more o’ that ’ere tex’ that we was a-argu- 
fyin’ on t’other arternoon? ” 

Betty nodded. 

“ I’m always thinking of it,” she said, stopping the motion 
of the chair and looking up at him with grave, earnest eyes. 

" Ah, well, so am I ! I’ve had a good bit o’ readin’, too ; 
’tis a most important thing, the Bible be, and I’ve been giv- 
in’ a good bit o’ my mind to it latterly. ’Twas your calm 
tone of sayin’ I must be ready to die if I’d bin through 
tribbylation started me off. I couldn’t quite make out about 
the washin’, and so I’ve a-looked it up. And I’ve found 
out from the old Book that I’m as black a sinner as ever 
lived on this ’ere blessed earth.” 

“ How dreadful!” Betty said in an awed, shocked tone; 
“ and you told me you were so good! I never knew grown- 
up people were wicked; I thought it was only children. 
What made you find it out ? ” 

“ Well, ’twas readin’ what we ought to live like first knocked 
me down. I got a-lookin’ through them there epistles, and 
got awful cast down. And then I thinks to mysel’, p’r’aps, 
72 



5 


God's Patchwork 

arter all, Paul and such like were too severe ; so I went to 
the gospels, for I’ve always heerd the gospels tell of love, 
and not judgment; but I wasn’t comforted by them, not a 
bit — not even when I turned up the sheep chapter that I 
used for to learn as a little ’un. It says there, ‘ My sheep 
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.’ And 
I says to myself, ‘ Reuben, you’ve never a-listened to His 
voice ; you’ve a-gone your own way all your life through, and 
you ain’t a-follered Him one day in all the sixty and eight 
years you’ve a-bin on this ’ere blessed earth! ’ Well, I began 
to think I’d better say that prayer my dear old missis a-told 
me : ‘ Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.’ And then 
’twas last Toosday night about seven o’clock I got the an- 
swer.” 

The old man paused, took his pipe out of his mouth, and 
looked up at the blackened rafters across his little kitchen 
with a quivering smile about his lips, while Betty, with knitted 
brows, tried hard to follow him in what he was saying. 

“ I was a-turnin’ over the leaves of the old Book,” he con- 
tinued, “ when I come to a tex’ which stared me full in the 
face, and round it was penciled a thick black line, which was 
the doin’ of my missis. I’ll read it for you, little maid.” 

He rose and took from the shelf a large family Bible. 
Placing it on the table, he turned over its leaves with a 
trembling hand, and then his voice rang out with a solemn 
triumph in it : (< 1 Come now, and let us reason together, saith 
the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall 
be as wool.’ My knees began to tremble, for I says to my- 
self, ‘ Reuben, ’tis the Lord’s voice to thee.’ And I drops 
down on the floor, just where you’re a-sittin’, missy, and I 
says, ' Amen, so be it, Lord.’ I gets up with a washed soul 
— washed in the blood of the Lamb.” 





73 


The Odd One 


There was silence; the old man’s attitude, his upward 
gaze, his solemn emphasis, awed and puzzled Betty. 

“And now you’re in the text! ” she said at last, somewhat 
wistfully, as she drew Prince to her and lifted him into her 
lap. 

“ I shall be one o’ these days, for certain sure,” was old 
Reuben’s reply ; “ but ’tis the Lord that will put me there— 
’tis His washin’ that has done it.” 

“ That’s what Miss Fairfax said ; she said it wasn’t tribu- 



lation would bring us to heaven. She made me sing : 


‘ There was no other good enough 
To pay the price of sin ; 


He only could unlock the gate 
Of heaven and let us in.’ 


But I’m quite sure God won’t mean me to stand in the middle 
of those people round the throne, if I haven’t been through 
tribulation; I’m quite sure He won’t! I shall find myself 
in a mistake if I try to creep in among them ; and oh, I 
want to be there! I want to be there!” 

Tears were welling up, and Prince wondered why he was 
clutched hold of so convulsively by his little mistress. 

Reuben looked at her, rubbed his head a little doubtfully, 
and then straightened himself up with a sudden resolve. 

“ Look here, little maid, you just a-foller me ; I’m a-goin’ 
to the church.” 

Up Betty sprang ; her tears were brushed away ; and she 
and Prince danced along by the side of the old man, her 
doubts and fears dispersing for the time. 

But Reuben was very silent. He led her into the cool, 
dark church and up the side aisle to the tomb of little Violet 
Russell. There he stopped and directed the child’s gaze 
above it to the stained-glass window. 


74 


God's Patchwork 


“ Can you read the tex’, little maid? ” 

“Yes,” said Betty, brightly; “why, even Bobby and Billy 
know that : * Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and 
forbid them not.’ ” 

“ And that’s what the Lord says,” the old man went on. 
“ Did He say the children were to have tribbylation afore 
they corned to Him? Why, for sure not! And if you, little 
missy, go straight into His arms when you gets to heaven, 
you’ll be safe enough, and He’ll know where to put you.” 

Betty’s little face beamed all over. 

“And He will love me even if I haven’t been through 
tribulation? ” 

“Why, for sure He will.” 

Betty gave a happy little sigh. 

“I tell you what, now,” Reuben added; “if you’re a- 
wantin’ to have tribbylation made clear to you, I’ll take you 
down to see old Jenny — ‘praychin’ Jenny,’ she used to be 
called, for she used to hold forth in chapel better than a 
parson. And she’s bin bedridden these twelve year ; but she 
can learn anybody about the Bible. She knows tex’s by 
thousands. There bain’t no one can puzzle Jenny over the 
Bible.” 

“ Is she very ill? ” asked Betty. 

“She’s just bedridden with rheumatics, that's all; but ’tis 
quite enough, and I was calkilatin’ only t’other day that I’ll 
have to be diggin’ her grave afore Christmas.” 

“ Will you take me to see her now? ” 

“ For sure I will.” 

Out of the cool church they went, and along the hot, dusty 
road, till they reached a low, thatched cottage by the wayside. 
Reuben lifted the latch of the door and walked right in. 

There was a big screen just inside the door, and a voice 
asked at once : 

75 



The Odd One 



“ Who be there? ” 

“ ’Tis only Reuben and a little lass that wants to see you.” 
And Betty was led round the screen to a big four-post bed 
with spotlessly clean hangings and a wonderful patchwork 
quilt. Lying back on the pillows was one of the sweetest 
old women that Betty had ever seen. A close frilled night- 
cap surrounded a cheery, withered face — a face that looked 
as if nothing would break the placid smile upon it, nothing 
would dim the joy and peace shining through the faded blue 
eyes. 

Betty held out her little hand. 

“ How do you do? ” she said. “ This old man has brought 
me to see you ; he said you would tell me about tribulation.” 

“ Bless your dear little heart! Lift her up on the foot of 
the bed, Reuben. Why, what a bonny little maid! And 
who may she be? ” 

“ She be lodgin’ at Farmer Giles’s, and be troubled in her 
mind concarnin’ tribbylation.” 

The old woman reached over and laid a wrinkled hand on 
the soft, childish one. 

“Then tell old Jenny, deary, what it is.” 

Betty was quite ready to do so, and poured forth such a 
long, incoherent story that it was very difficult to understand 
her. Jenny did not quite take in her perplexity. 

“ Aye, deary, most of us has tribbylation in some form or 
t’other. I often think, as I lie lookin’ at my patchwork quilt, 
that it be just a pictur’ of our life — a little bit o’ brightness 
and then a patch o’ dark ; but the dark is j’ined to the bright, 
and one never knows just what the next patch will be. But 
the One who makes it knows ; He’s a-workin’ in the pattern, 
and the black, dark bits only serve to show up the bright 
that’s a-comin’.” 

“ Aye,” said Reuben, sinking into a chair ; “ I mind plenty 


7G 



God's Patchwork 


o’ black days in my life; but I’ve had a many bright ’uns 
too — aye, and one white ’un, and that were last Toosday. 
It be a fine patch o’ white in my quilt, Jenny!” 

“ Tribbylation ! ” said the old woman, musingly. “ I mind 
o’ several verses on it : ‘ In the world ye shall have tribby- 
lation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world.’ 
‘ We must through much tribbylation enter into the kingdom 
of God.’ * We glory in tribbylations also ; knowing that trib- 
bylation worketh patience.’ ‘Who shall separate us from 
the love of Christ? shall tribbylation?’ Ah, tribbylation is 
tryin’ to the flesh, but ’tis for the improvin’ of the soul.” 

“And does everybody have it except children?” asked 
Betty, with a solemn face. 

“ I think as how most folks have it in one form or t’other ; 
the saints get it surely, for ‘ whom the Lord loveth He chas- 
teneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.’ ” 

“ What does ‘ chasteneth ’ mean ? ” 

“ Punish, I take it, deary ; your father and mother punishes 
you at times, don’t they? ” 

“No, never; only nurse.” 

“Ah, well ; and doesn’t she desire your good? She don’t 
do it just to spite you.” 

“ I s’pose it’s for my good,” said Betty, doubtfully. 

“ Tribbylation will allays be a mystery,” went on the old 
woman, speaking more to Reuben than the child. “We 
must bow our heads and take it, whether we like it or no ; 
and it’s wonderful strange how differently folks take it! 
Seems to me, as the Bible puts it, it’s just a fire, and whiles 
some, like wax, gets melted and soft by it, t’others are like 
the clay — they gets hard and unbendable. I’ve known lots 
o’ both those sorts in my time ; ’tis only by keeping close to 
the Hand that smites that you feels the comfort and healing 
that goes along with it. If you keeps a distance off, and lets 




C-T 

Vw: 


77 




r ^\v 








The Odd One 

the devil come a-sympathizin’ and a-groanin’ with you, then 
it’s all bitterness through and through.” 

“ Aye,” said Reuben ; “ me and the devil have oft sat down 
together over my troubles, and he do know how to make ’em 
werry black! ” 

Betty’s round eyes and puzzled gaze at this assertion made 
Reuben adopt another tone. 

“But here’s this little lass, Jenny, a-wantin’ to have trib- 
bylation for fear she shouldn’t be one o’ the Lord’s people 
after all.” 

The old woman looked across at the child, and then she 
nodded brightly at her. 

“ And you shall have it, deary ; the Lord will send it 
surely ; and when you’re in the midst o’t, you mind these 
words o’ the Lord’s: 'Be thou faithful unto death, and I 
will give thee a crown of life.’ It’s in tribbylation our faith 
fails ; we can’t see in the dark, and we mistrust our Guide.” 

Betty’s face lit up at these words, and she brushed away 
some glittering drops from her long lashes. 

“You think I shall really have it? ” she questioned eagerly. 

“ Surely you will in some form or t’other, and p’r’aps be- 
fore you’re a growed-up woman. I sometimes think little 
folks’ troubles are as big as the older folks’.” 

Betty did not hear much more of the conversation that 
followed. Old Jenny had done more to comfort and satisfy 
her than any one else, and she left the cottage with Reuben, 
saying : 

“I like Jenny very much, and so does Prince; we will 
come and see her again.” 


78 




BETTY'S DISCOVERY 


Molly and Douglas were up in an apple-tree in the or- 
chard, late one afternoon, when Betty and Prince came 
rushing by. 

“ Hullo! where are you going? ” shouted Douglas. 

Betty came to a standstill, and Prince likewise, the latter 
putting his tongue out and looking up inquiringly as he 
panted for breath. 

Betty cut a caper. “ I’m going to spend the day with 
Miss Fairfax to-morrow — me and Prince. Hurray!” 

And Prince danced round his little mistress’s legs with 
delighted barks. 

“ I don’t believe it,” said Molly, looking down through the 
leafy branches. “ Didn’t she ask us too? ” 

“ No, only me ; she said she’d ask you another day.” 

“Where did you see Miss Fairfax? ” 

“ In church ; she has been making the loveliest music, and 
Prince and I have been singing.” 

“ Prince - singing ! ” said Douglas, contemptuously. “I 
should like to hear him! ” 

“ He does,” Betty said eagerly ; “ he really does. He kind 
of whines in his throat and up his nose, and sometimes he 
puts up his head, opens his mouth wide, and gives a lovely 

79 



The Odd One 


howl. And he looks awfully pleased when he’s done it ; he 
thinks he sings very nicely. Where’s nurse? ” 

“ She’s washing Bobby ; he tumbled right into the pigsty, 
and came out a disgusting objec’.” 

“ Is she rather cross? ” 

“Of course she is ; she won’t let you go to Miss Fairfax 
if you ask her now.” 

“ Then I’ll wait till tea.” 

Betty threw herself down on the grass, and Prince sat at 
her feet, thumping his tail on the ground and watching in- 
tently every change that flitted across her face. Now and 
then he would make a snap at some flies ; if Betty spoke to 
him his whole body would wriggle with ecstasy ; he seemed 
to live on her smiles and caressing words. 

“It will be very dull to spend the day with a grown-up 
person,” said Douglas, presently ; “ I’m glad she didn’t ask 
me ; I never do care for grown-up persons.” 

His lordly air in making this assertion helped to fortify 
Molly, who was bitterly disappointed in not being included 
in the invitation. 

“ I love her,” exclaimed Betty ; “ she’s the nicest grown- 
up I’ve ever seen. She does laugh so, and isn’t a bit proper.” 

“Well, you’ll be sick of it before the day is over — you see 
if you aren’t! Now Molly and I are going to have a lovely 
day. Would you like to know what we’re going to do? ” 

Molly listened eagerly, for Douglas’s plans were always 
sudden and unexpected. 

“ We’re going off directly after breakfast with our dinner 
in our basket, and we’re going dow r n to the brook. I’m 
going to build a bridge over it at the widest part!” 

Both sisters looked aghast at this audacity. 

“ What will you build it of? ” questioned Betty, skeptically. 

“ Of stones and clay. We shall make the clay down there, 

80 



Betty's Discovery 

and I shall put a few boards in, and make it all smooth with 
some putty that I saw in the stable.” 

“ You will fall in the water and get drowned,” said Betty. 
And then she jumped up and ran off to the house to escape 
a pelting shower of small green apples from her irate brother. 

Nurse made a few objections at first when she heard of 
Betty’s invitation ; but when she knew that Miss Fairfax was 
going to call for her little guest, and had promised to bring 
her safely back again, she gave the required permission, and 
Betty’s sleep that night was full of wonderful dreams about 
her coming visit. 

She woke very early the next morning, and was full of 
confidences to Prince of all that they were going to do and 
say. She gave nurse no rest after breakfast until she had 
dressed her in her best white frock and tan shoes and stock- 
ings ; then, with her large white Leghorn hat and little white 
silk gloves, she sat up on a chair in the best front parlor, 
feeling very important, and making a dainty little picture as 
she sat there. Prince had a piece of pink ribbon tied round 
his neck ; Mrs. Giles had produced it from her work-basket, 
and had gained a fervent kiss and hug from the little maiden 
• hereby. 

At last Nesta arrived in a low pony carriage, to Betty’s 
intense delight. She wished that Molly and Douglas had 
waited to see her step in and drive off ; but they had run off 
half an hour before, nurse having packed them a lunch-basket 
as desired. 

Nesta smiled at the excited child, as she and Prince tumbled 
themselves into the carriage with a good deal of fuss; but 
when they were once off, driving through the shady lanes, 
Betty folded her little hands demurely round Prince in her 
lap, and upon her face came that dreamy look her friend so 
loved to see. She did not ask questions, and the drive was 

81 


The Odd One 



a quiet one, until they at length drove through some iron 
gates round a thick shrubbery, and up to a big white house 
with green Venetian shutters and a brilliant show of roses in 
front. Betty was lifted out and taken up some low stone 
steps into a broad, old-fashioned hall. It seemed very cool 
and quiet inside ; thick, soft rugs lay about the tiled floor, 
large pots of flowering shrubs stood here and there, and at 
the farther end was an open door with striped awning out- 
side, and a glimpse of a smooth, grassy lawn and bright 
flower-beds. 

Nesta opened a door and led Betty into a darkened room, 
full of sweet scents of heliotrope and roses. 

“Now I am going to bring you something, so sit down 
and wait for me.” 

Betty’s quick eyes were taking in everything; and as for 
Prince, his nose was as busy as his eyes, and a low growl 
and a stiffening of his ears soon told his little mistress that 
he had discovered something objectionable. When Betty 
crossed the room on tiptoe she found him in front of a large 
mirror, and the snarl on his lips was not pleasant to see as 
he faced his mock antagonist. 

“ O Prince, for shame! I must hold you. What would I 
do if you broke that glass? Now come and look at these 
beautiful pictures. Look at that lady up there ; she has got 
a little dog in her arms very like you.” 

It was a pleasant morning-room, with plenty of pretty or- 
naments scattered about, and after the farm kitchen it had a 
great fascination for Betty. 

Nesta presently returned with some sponge-cakes and a 
glass of raspberry vinegar, which Betty found most refreshing. 

“ Do you live here all alone? ” she asked. 

“No,” said Miss Fairfax, smiling; “I have my mother 
and sister here. My mother is not very well to-day, but I 
82 


Betty's Discovery 

will take you to see my sister now. Come along this way. 
Will Prince be good? ” 

“Yes; he won’t bark at all unless he meets another dog.” 

Betty trotted along, following her guide across the hall to 
another room, where, on a couch near the window, lay a 
lady. 

“I’ve brought a little visitor to see you, Grace,” Nesta 
said in cheery tones. “ This is the little girl I was telling 
you about the other day.” 

“ I can’t bear children,” was the fretful reply ; “ why do 
you bring her here? ” 

But nevertheless she put the book down that she was 
reading, and scanned the child from head to foot. Betty’s 
grave face and earnest scrutiny in return seemed to vex her 
more. 

“How children stare! Do you think me a scarecrow, 
child? Can’t you keep your eyes to yourself? What is 
your name? ” 

“Betty.” And the little girl drew to her friend’s side 
rather shyly. 

“Go and shake hands,” whispered Nesta. 

Betty went up to the couch and held out her little hand. 
The invalid took it, and the fair, flushed little face seemed 
to attract her. 

“This is a perfect baby, Nesta; I thought you meant a 
much older child. Well, little girl, haven’t you a tongue in 
your head? Have you nothing to say? It’s the way of this 
house. Here I lie from morning to night without a soul to 
speak to, and if I do have a visitor it is half a dozen words 
and then off they go! I should like them to lie here and 
suffer as I do— perhaps they might have a little more feeling 
for an invalid if they did.” 

“Are you going to die? ” asked Betty, timidly. 



83 


The Odd One 



“Take her away!” gasped Miss Grace. “ Don’t bring a 
child to mock me. And I suppose you will be devoting 
yourself to her the whole day, and I shall have no one to 
read the paper to me.” 

“ No,” said Nesta, brightly ; “I am going to let her play 
in the garden, and then I shall come to you as usual. Come 
along, Betty ; now you and Prince can have a scamper.” 

Out into the garden they went. But Betty rubbed her 
eyes in bewilderment when she got there. Surely she had 
seen this garden before. Was it in her dreams last night? 

She tripped across the velvet lawn, answering Nesta’s 
questions and remarks rather absently, and then suddenly she 
turned round with a beaming face. “ I’ve been here before,” 
she said; “I had some lilies from over there, and I came 
through that little door in the wall from the wood. Do you 
know my lady? She looks like a queen. Does she live with 
you? ” 

Nesta looked perfectly bewildered. 

“You must be dreaming, Betty. How could you have 
come here? When did you come? ” 

Betty told her of her adventure in the wood, and Nesta 
listened in wonder. 

“It must have been my mother, and yet I can hardly un- 
derstand it. It is unlike her to take any notice of children.” 
Then she added, “ Do you think you can make yourself 
happy in the garden, Betty, or would you like to go down 
the green walk outside the little gate? ” 

“ Will you open the gate and let me see ? ” said Betty, 
thoughtfully. 

Nesta took her to it, and then for a moment they stood 
silent, looking down the green avenue, with the golden sun- 
shine glinting through the leafy trees, and the tall bracken 
swaying to and fro in the summer breeze. 

84 


Betty's Discovery 

“ Which do you like best, Betty, the garden or this? ” 

Betty turned and looked behind her at the lovely flowers 
and beautifully kept grass and gravel walks, and then she 
heaved a little sigh as she looked out into the wood. 

“ My beautiful old lady asked me that question before, 
and I thought then I liked the garden, but now I like this 
green walk best,” she said. 

“You prefer nature uncultivated, don’t you? So do I. 
But I do not often come out here. This is my mother’s 
favorite spot.” 

“ Did you say ‘ nature ’ ? ” questioned Betty, eagerly. “ Do 
you mean Mother Nature? You said you would show her 
to me one day.” 

“ So I did; I have quite forgotten. Well, there she is out 
there, Betty. Nature is God’s beautiful earth: the country, 
the birds, the rabbits, and the squirrels — everything that He 
makes and that man leaves alone.” 

“ I don’t understand.” And the child’s white brow was 
creased with puckers. “ I thought she was a woman ; Mr. 
Roper said she was ; he said he had learned many a lesson 
from her.” 

“And so have I,” said Nesta, softly. “Listen, Betty. 
Sometimes I have gone out of doors tired and worried and sad ; 
I have wandered through the wood, and the sweet sounds 
and sights I have heard and seen in it have brought me home 
rested and refreshed. They have spoken to me of God’s 
love and God’s care and God’s perfection. You are too 
little to understand me, I expect, but you will when you get 
older. God makes everything beautiful, and He watches 
over the tiny birds and insects whom no one but Himself 
ever sees. The tiniest flower is noticed by Him, and all His 
works in nature lead us to think of Him and to remember 
how He loves and cares for us.” 



85 


The Odd One 



Betty’s blue eyes were raised earnestly upward. 

“ God does love everything, doesn’t He? And He loves 
Prince just as much as He does you and me.” 

Nesta hesitated. “ I think, darling, God has a different 
love for us to what He has for animals. We have cost the 
dear Saviour His life ; our souls have been redeemed. Ani- 
mals have no souls ; they do not know the difference between 
right and wrong—” 

“But Prince does,” broke in Betty, hastily; “he knows 
lots of the Bible, for I’ve told him about it, and I read the 
f Peep of Day ’ to him on Sunday. He likes it ; he lies quite 
still on my lap, and folds his paws, and listens like anything. 
And I’ve told him about Jesus dying for him, and how he 
must try to be good. And he does try ; he wanted to run 
after some little chickens yesterday, and I called him and 
told him it was wicked, and he came away from them di- 
rectly ; and I know he wanted to go after them dreadfully, 
for he was licking his lips and glaring at them ! ” 

This outburst from Betty was too much for Nesta. She 
looked at her with perplexity, then wisely turned the subject, 
and after a few minutes’ more chat, left her and went back 
to the house. 

Betty wandered out into the wood, and then, seating her- 
self on a soft bank surrounded by ferns and foxgloves, she 
drew Prince to her. 

“ Come, you little darling, how do you like this? Isn’t it 
lovely to be spending a day in that lovely house, and not 
have to be shut out with only some lilies to take away? Do 
you like it, Prince? And do you think we shall see that nice 
queen and find out if she sent you in a basket to me? Do 
you understand about nature, Prince? I wish I did, but it’s 
the earth, I think. You put your mouth down and kiss it. 
Isn’t it nice and soft? ” 

86 


Betty's Discovery 

And then, laying her curly head on the velvet moss, Betty 
pressed her lips to it, whispering, “ Mother Nature, Mr. Roper 
sent you his love and a kiss.” 

Prince was not content to stay as quiet as this for long, 
and when a rabbit popped out from a hole close by, he was 
after it like lightning. Betty tore after him delightedly, and 
a scamper removed from her busy little mind for the time 
thoughts that were beginning to trouble her. 

When Nesta returned to the garden half an hour after, 
she found Betty deep in conversation with the old gardener, 
and Prince was hunting for snails in a thick laurel hedge 
close by. 

“We didn’t stay out in the wood very long,” Betty ex- 
plained ; “ we got tired of running after rabbits.” 

“ You must come in to luncheon now ; I want you to come 
up to my room to wash your face and hands.” 

“Will the cross lady be at lunch? ” asked Betty, as she 
trotted up the broad oak stairs a few minutes later. 

“ Hush, dear— she is ill, remember. I don’t think she 
will lunch with us.” 

Nesta took her little visitor through a long passage to a 
pretty bedroom, and Betty looked about at all the pictures 
and knickknacks, asking ceaseless questions, and fingering 
everything that she could get hold of. Her curls were 
brushed out, her hands and face washed, and then she was 
brought down to the large drawing-room. 

“This is my little friend, mother,” said Nesta, going in. 

A tall figure turned round from the window, and Betty saw 
her mysterious lady once again. She looked colder and 
sterner than ever, and put up her gold pince-nez to scan the 
little new-comer down ; but Betty’s radiant face, dimpling all 
over with pleasure as she held up her face for a kiss, brought 
a softer gleam to the old gray eyes, and, to her daughter’s 

87 


The Odd One 

astonishment, Mrs. Fairfax stooped to give the expected 
kiss. 

“ It is the little trespasser,” she said. “ I did not know I 
should see you again so soon.” 

Then she turned to Nesta. “ Grace informed me she in- 
tended to lunch with us. She is in the dining-room already, 
so we will wait no longer.” 

They walked in silence across to the dining-room, and 
Betty, awed by the big table, the noiseless butler, and the 
cold, formal stateliness of the meal, sat up in her big chair, 
subdued and still. 



88 



A LITTLE MESSENGER 

Miss Fairfax seemed the most talkative, but her conver- 
sation was a perpetual flow of complaints ; the food, the 
weather, and her ailments were her chief topics, and Betty’s 
round eyes of amazement, as she sat opposite, served to irri- 
tate her more. At length she gave a little start and scream. 

“ I am sure there is a dog in the room! ” she exclaimed. 
“ How often have I told you, Jennings,” — this to the butler, 
— “to keep the dogs out of our rooms!” 

“ It’s my dog,” said Betty, at once ; “ it’s only Prince. He 
always sits under my chair; he’s such a dear, he waits as 
quiet as a mouse.” 

“Take him out of the room at once, Jennings; I can’t 
eat another mouthful while he is here. You ought never to 
have allowed him to come in ! ” 

“ O Grace, he won’t hurt you! ” said Nesta, remonstrating. 

Miss Fairfax put her knife and fork together and leaned 
back in her chair. 

“ Very well ; as my nerves are never considered in the 
least, it is useless for me to speak ; I had better go back to 
my room. I am continually being urged to join you at 
meal-times, yet when I do I am expected to go through the 
misery of having a wretched dog crawling round my feet 

89 


•/*#- ..fv 


The Odd One 



and setting every nerve in my head quivering and throb- 
bing.” 

“Take the dog outside,” said Mrs. Fairfax, quietly; then, 
turning to Betty, who looked very perturbed and flushed, she 
said, “ Jennings will take care of him, and he shall have some 
dinner in the kitchen.” 

“He won’t be beaten, will he? He didn’t know it was 
wrong to follow me.” And Betty’s eyes began to fill with 
tears as she saw Prince seized by the scruff of his neck and 
carried off, in spite of indignant growls and snaps. 

“ No, he won’t be beaten,” she was assured ; but after this 
she had no appetite for her dinner, and when the ladies rose 
from the table she ran up to Mrs. Fairfax. 

“ May I have Prince again now? He’s so very good. I 
want him dreadfully.” 

“Yes, he shall be brought to you. What are you going to 
do with the child, Nesta?” 

“ I will take her out into the garden, mother. But I hear 
old Mrs. Parr has come up for some linseed meal I promised 
her. Her husband is very ill again with bronchitis. I shall 
not be gone long.” 

“ Then Betty shall come upstairs with me.” 

Again Nesta wondered, but wisely said nothing. 

Prince came scampering across the hall, and Betty, now 
completely happy, took hold of Mrs. Fairfax’s hand and went 
upstairs into a lovely little boudoir, where she sat down in a 
low, cushioned seat by the window and chattered away to 
her heart’s content. 

“ Did you send Prince to me? You did, didn’t you? I 
knew it was you! He is such a darling, and it makes me 
into a couple, which I’ve never been before.” 

Mrs. Fairfax smiled ; she seemed to lose some of her stiff- 
ness when with Betty alone. 

90 


.. V 


A Little Messenger 

“And is he as much a companion as another brother or 
sister might be? ” 

“ I think he’s much nicer. I wouldn’t have any one in- 
stead of him for all the world.” 

“What have you been doing with yourself since I saw 
you? ” 

“ Lots and lots of things. I go to church to hear Miss 
Fairfax play the organ, and I take flowers to dead Violet; 
and I have got into lots of scrapes, but I don’t think I’m 
quite as naughty here as I used to be in the City. At least 
we can’t quite make it out. Douglas was saying, the other 
day, nurse lets him climb any trees here ; but if he tried to 
climb a lamp-post, or even one of the trees in the parks, in 
the City, he was always being whipped or put into Cells for 
it. And in the country we can go out without gloves, and 
run races along the roads, and swing on gates, and we never 
get punished at all. We don’t want to go back to the City ; 
it’s so dreadfully hard to be good there.” 

“ But don’t you want to see your father and mother 
again? ” 

“Yes, I s’pose so; but we don’t see them very much at 
home. I’d like to stay in the country for ever and ever, and 
so would Prince.” After a pause she went on: “You see, 
there’s a good deal more going on in the country than in the 
City. We know a lot more people, and there’s always some- 
thing fresh happening. Now in the City every day is the 
same, and we have only the nursery to play in ; we get so 
tired of it. At the farm where we live we’re always having 
nice surprises : lots of little calves are born quite suddenly, 
or little horses, and we don’t know anything about it till we 
go and see them in the morning. Yesterday there were six 
little black pigs— such little beauties! And then we have so 
many more people to talk to. There’s Farmer and Mrs. 

91 


The Odd One 



Giles, and Sam, and all the carters, and the old man who 
digs the graves, and old Jenny, and you, and Miss Fairfax, 
and Mr. Russell— but I’ve only seen him once.” 

Betty paused for breath. 

“ And what do you find to talk about to so many people? ” 

“ I’ve been talking rather grave talks with some of them,” 
Betty said reflectively, “about tribulation.” 

Mrs. Fairfax raised her eyebrows. 

“ That is very grave talk indeed for such a mite as you. 
What do you know about it? ” 

“ I know that everybody has got it except me, and I want 
to have it ; and old Jenny said I’d be sure to come to it soon. 
She’s had it, and Reuben has, and Mr. Russell, and nurse, 
and Miss Fairfax has. Has the cross lady downstairs had 
it, and have you? ” 

Mrs. Fairfax’s lips quivered a little as she turned away her 
head. The soft, childish fingers were probing the wound, 
and she shrank from their touch. 

Betty went on dreamily : “ I often wonder what it’s like, 
and whether you feel like Christian did in the dark valley ; 
but he got through it all right at last ! I should like to come 
right through it into the middle of the text, and Jenny says 
I shall some day.” 

There was glad triumph in her tone. 

“What text?” asked Mrs. Fairfax, looking out of the 
window and away to the green woods in the distance. 

Betty repeated once more the familiar words : 

“ ‘ These are they which came out of great tribulation, and 
have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb.’ How glad they must be to have had it! 
Don’t you think so? ” 

And then the stately Mrs. Fairfax sat down and took Betty 
upon her knee ; drawing her close to her till she had the little 
92 



A Little Messenger 

dark curly head resting against her shoulder, she bent her 
head to hers and said almost passionately : 

“ God grant you will never know such trouble as mine, 
little one— trouble that turns your heart to stone and blots 
all heaven from your sight!” 

Betty put her little arms round her neck. 

“Old Jenny said I should have it,” she repeated; “and 
she told me when I was in the middle of it to remember, 
‘Be thou faithful unto death’— I forget the other part.” 

There was silence for some moments, then Mrs. Fairfax 
kissed the upturned face. 

“ Now run downstairs, little woman, and find Nesta. I 
will say good-by now, for I shall not see you again.” 

Betty obeyed instantly, and when she had gone, for the first 
time for many a long month, the sorrowful woman knelt in 
prayer. “ God help me! ” she cried. “ I have been an un- 
faithful servant, and have refused to turn to Thee for com- 
fort.” 

The rest of the afternoon was as delightful as the morning 
to Betty. She visited the stables and poultry-yard; she 
picked strawberries and ate them while she picked ; she 
gathered a large nosegay of flowers to take home to nurse ; 
and then at four o’clock she came in to a delicious little 
tea in the cool, shady parlor. Miss Fairfax was lying 
on the sofa there, but she seemed to like to hear the child 
talk, and even condescended to allow Prince to come inside 
to receive a lump of sugar on his nose, while he sat up and 
begged. 

“ I’ve had a lovely day,” said Betty, as Nesta was putting 
on her hat upstairs in the bedroom. 

“ And so have I,” responded Nesta, laughing. “ You have 
been very good company, Betty ; I shall be quite dull when 
you are gone.” 


93 


The Odd One 

“Have you no one to talk to when I’m not here? Are 
you an odd one? ” 

“ Perhaps I may be.” 

“ Why don’t you make yourself into a couple with some 
one, like Prince and me? ” 

But this made Nesta’s soft eyes fill with tears, and Betty 
felt very uncomfortable until she was kissed and told she 
was the funniest little chatterbox living. The pony carriage 
came round, and a little later she was being driven home, 
rather tired, and very happy at her day’s outing. 

Nesta left her at the gate and drove silently home. Betty 
had brought a good deal of brightness into her life, and 
though she was always outwardly so cheery in her manner, 
her heart was often heavy and sore. It was not a cheerful 
house, and as, an hour later, she tried to enliven the solemn 
dinner-table, expecting, as usual, to meet with no response 
but grumbles from Grace and chilling indifference on the 
part of her mother, she was surprised by Mrs. Fairfax’s efforts 
to take part in the conversation. 

“ That child is an original character,” she observed. “ Do 
you know who they are, Nesta ? ” 

“Yes; Mr. Crump was telling me the other day. Their 
father is the member for Stonycroft, and their mother that 
Mrs. Stuart who is so busy in philanthropical objects in 
town. She was one of the Miss Champneys — the clever 
Miss Champneys, as we used to call them. I think the 
children must inherit the talents of their parents, for, though 
they are regular little pickles for mischief, they are all origi- 
nal in their way. Betty thinks the most, I should" say ; the 
others seem to live in dreamland half their time. I came 
across the other girl and boy in an old willow-tree the other 
day. I spoke to them, but was hushed up at once by the 
boy, who put his fair curly head out of the branches and said, 
94 



A Little Messenger 


‘You’re not to speak to us just now; we’re hiding from the 
queen of the brook! She comes dashing down in foam, she’s 
so angry with us ; and if she splashes us, we shall be turned 
into black dogs and have to go on all fours till dinner-time! ’ 
I laughed and left them. I don’t altogether envy their 
nurse.” 

“ Betty is not enough of a child,” Mrs. Fairfax said ; “ some 
of her sayings are quite uncanny.” 

“ Do you think so? She has plenty of life and spirits. 
But she is a child of intense feeling. I am afraid she will 
suffer for it as she grows older. Yesterday I came upon her 
outside the churchyard crying as if her heart would break 
over a dead frog. I tried to comfort her. ‘ Oh,’ she sobbed, 
‘ I’m so afraid Prince has killed it. I didn’t see him, but he 
may have ; and he doesn’t look a bit sorry. What shall I 
do if he grows up a murderer? ’ ” 

Mrs. Fairfax would have thought Betty a stranger child 
still if she could have seen her that evening tossing in her 
little bed. 

Molly was fast asleep. Nurse had left the room, and all 
was quiet ; but Betty was going over in her busy little mind 
the events of the past day. At last she stretched out her 
hand to Prince in his basket. 

“She said you had no soul. Prince; I wonder if you 
haven’t? I wish you’d say prayers to God; I’m sure God 
will give you a soul if you ought to have one! Prince, wake 



up! ” 

Prince rolled over, shook himself, and jumped up on the 
bed, wondering what was the reason of this summons. 

Betty sat up with flushed cheeks and bright eyes. “ Come 
here, Prince. Now beg! That’s right. Now say a prayer 
—just a very little one. I pray for you, darling, every night, 
but you’re big enough to pray yourself. God will know your 

95 


The Odd One 


language if you speak to Him, and you can just speak secret 
to Him— I do often. Now, Prince — no, don’t lick my hand, 
and keep your tail still. I wish you’d shut your eyes. I’ll 
put my hand over them — there! Now, Prince, ask God to 
give you a soul, and forgive your sins, and take you to heaven 
when you die.” 

Betty bent her head in silence, while for two minutes Prince 
kept perfectly still; then she took her little hands from his 
eyes, and he gave a quick, short bark of delight, perhaps in 
anticipation of a lump of sugar for this new trick taught him. 
If so, he was disappointed ; he was only kissed and put back 
into his basket. And Betty laid her little head on the pillow, 
but only half satisfied. “ O God,” she murmured sleepily, 
“if Prince hasn’t prayed properly, please forgive him, and 
give him a soul, and make him a good dog, for J esus Christ’s 
sake. Amen.” 



96 



A DARING FEAT 


It was a hot afternoon in July. The children had tired 
themselves out with play, and were resting under some shady 
trees near the farm. By and by Betty wandered off into a 
neighboring corn-field, and, resting her head against an old 
log of wood in the corner of it, went fast asleep, while Prince 
sat at her feet keeping a faithful watch over his little mistress. 
Mr. Russell, sauntering through a foot-path in the field, came 
up and looked at them, and his artist’s eye was at once 
charmed with the picture they made. He stood and, taking 
out his sketch-book, drew a rapid outline of Betty’s little 
figure as she lay there, one hand grasping some red poppies, 
and the other arm thrown behind her curly head. Prince 
was also sketched, and then Betty awoke. She looked con- 
fused at first, then jumped to her feet. 

“ Don’t be frightened,” said Mr. Russell, gravely. “ Do 
you live near here? ” 

Betty pointed out the farm. 

“ And do you think you would be allowed to come to my 
house one day for me to make a picture of you? ” 

Betty colored with pleasure. 

“ I’ll ask nurse. All by myself? ” 


97 


The Odd One 



All by yourself— at least with your dog. Where is your 
nurse? Would she come out here to speak to me? ” 

Nurse was only in the next field, so was easily fetched ; 
and though demurring somewhat at first, was soon reassured 
by Mr. Russell, who promised to keep Betty only about an hour. 

“ I will see she returns to you safely, my good woman ; 
and when you find that she has come to no harm, perhaps 
you will allow her to come again. I want to make a little 
sketch of her for a subject I have in view.” 

And it was settled that Betty should go to him the next 
day at two o’clock. 

“ I don’t quite like it,” said nurse, afterward, when talking 
it over with Mrs. Giles ; “ but he seemed rather a high-handed 
gentleman, as if he wouldn’t take no. I don’t know whether 
the mistress would like it. Most children would be shy of 
it, but none of these seem to know what shyness is ; and Miss 
Betty seems to make friends wherever she goes ; I can’t 
understand it. Miss Molly, to my eyes, is much the most 
taking.” 

“ Mr. Russell is our landlord,” responded Mrs. Giles ; “ he’s 
a proper sort o’ gentleman, and he won’t hurt the child by 
a-paintin’ of her. He lives all alone since his little girl died, 
and maybe she’ll cheer him up ; he’s very down-hearted, 
folks say.” 

“Why should you go, and not us?” said Molly, when 
Betty ran off to tell them all about it. “ It’s too bad ; you’re 
getting all the nice things, and I’m the eldest.” 

“ I don’t expect you’ll like it,” said Douglas, rolling over 
on the grass and tickling Bobby’s bare legs with a bunch of 
grass ; “ I know the man, and he has an awful temper! Sam 
told me he thrashed a boy who was taking a bird’s nest out 
of his orchard ; and he has a large glass room with skeletons 
and bits of people’s bodies lying all about. I think he likes 
98 


A Daring Feat 

to get children in there, and then he keeps them prisoners 
and never lets them out again.” 

Betty stood still, eying her brother doubtfully. 

“ I don’t believe it! ” 

“ You wait till he gets you there. He has dead men’s legs 
and hands. Sam says he’s seen them through the window. 
He’s a Bluebeard. He always keeps the room locked, and 
doesn’t let any one in. And if he takes you in there to-mor- 
row afternoon, you’ll never come out again!” 

“ And then I shall have Prince and take him back to the 
City for my dog,” put in Molly. 

“ Prince is coming with me,” Betty retorted ; “ so if I 
never come back again, Prince won’t! And I don’t care if 
we don’t come back. I’d rather live with Mr. Russell than 
with you when you are cross.” 

“ He’ll fatten you up with porridge for a week, and then 
he’ll cut you up into little bits, and Prince too.” 

Betty laughed and danced away, Prince at her heels. 

“You’re jealous because I’m going to be put into a pic- 
ture,” she called out. “ I’ll tell you all about the dead men’s 
legs when I come back.” 

The next afternoon she was taken up to the Hall by nurse, 
who arrayed herself in her best clothes, and was delighted 
when she was taken to the housekeeper’s room to be enter- 
tained. She would have liked to wait there the full hour, 
but Mr. Russell had promised to bring back Betty himself, 
so she had not that excuse. 

And Douglas and Molly were consoling themselves at 
home by building a hay castle in the meadow, and capturing 
Bobby and Billy at intervals under the plea of painting their 
pictures, and then going through a process which was more 
entertaining to them than to their little victims— that of cut- 
ting off their arms and legs to hang on their walls. 



The Odd One 



It was nearly five o’clock when Betty returned, and her 
little tongue was busy all tea-time. 

“ Such a funny room ! And Mr. Russell had changed his 
mind, and he isn’t going to paint my picture, but he’s going 
to make a dead figure of me and Prince instead; he’s got 
some white wet stuff like putty, and he rolls up his shirt- 
sleeves like a workman. I had to lie down and pretend to 
be asleep, but I could keep my eyes open ; and I did see 
some legs, but they’re images ; and there was an image with- 
out a head — a dead figure, you know. And there were 
beautiful curtains and flowers and rugs, and pictures half 
finished. It was rather an untidy room. I told Mr. Russell 
what you said, Douglas, and he laughed. He gave me some 
peaches, and then we had a nice grave talk coming home.” 

This and more Betty revealed, and her visits to the Hall 
became very frequent as time wore on. If she enjoyed them, 
Mr. Russell did too, and yet she brought to him mingled 
feelings of pleasure and pain. He talked lightly to her and 
put aside his stern moods while with her ; but every now and 
then some childish gesture or tone would stab him with the 
memory of his little daughter, and his brows would contract 
and his voice falter at the remembrance. 

One day he was called away from the studio, and for some 
time Betty was left alone. 

When he returned he found her lying flat on her chest, 
turning over the leaves of a book. 

“ What book have you got hold of? ” he asked. “ Some- 
thing that seems to interest you.” 

“ It’s Revelation,” said Betty, with a beaming face. 

“ The Bible? I did not remember I had one in the room ; 
ah, yes, I remember— it’s here for its antique cover. Well, 
what do you make of Revelation? ” 

“ Oh, I love it, don’t you? I’m reading about the singing 


A Daring Feat 

in heaven, and it says, ‘Ten thousand times ten thousand, 
and thousands of thousands.’ What crowds there will be! 
Mr. Russell, supposing heaven gets too small for all the 
people, what will happen? ” 

“ I don’t think there’s a chance of that,” Mr. Russell said, 
smiling ; “it doesn’t look as if many are bound there in the 
present age, at all events.” 

“ It says,” went on Betty, with her finger on the page, 4 For 
Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood 
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.’ 
That takes in everybody, doesn’t it, Mr. Russell? ” 

“Yes,” said Mr. Russell, looking down at the little figure 
on the floor half humorously, half sadly, “every one that 
wants to be taken in.” 

“ Why should any one want to be outside ? ” questioned 
the child. 

Mr. Russell did not answer; he went to his outline and 
uncovered it. It was rapidly progressing. Betty’s little 
figure was nearly finished ; there was the gnarled log of 
wood against which she lay, and Prince’s outline had already 
been commenced. 

She jumped up and came over to look at it. 

“ It would make a beautiful grave, wouldn’t it? ” she said 
thoughtfully. “ I should like to have it put on the top of 
mine when I die.” 

“ Don’t talk about dying, child! ” was the hasty reply. 

“ I’m afraid I’m not ready,” said Betty, with a shake of 
her curly head ; “ but I will be when I’ve been through tribu- 
lation. Mr. Russell, do you think a dog can go through 
tribulation? ” 

“No, I do not,” said Mr. Russell, laughing. Betty’s views 
on her favorite text were by this time well known to him, 
and he generally treated her childish difficulties with respect ; 

101 



The Odd One 


but this unexpected question was too much for him, and 
Betty’s little face clouded over at his laugh. She was very 
silent after that, and went home with rather a wistful little 
face. 

But all serious thoughts were dissolved at the news that 
awaited her. Molly rushed out, her long hair flying in the 
wind. “I’ve got a letter from Uncle Harry, and he is com- 
ing to see us next week! ” 

“ And he’s going to spend a week with us ; he’s going to 
fish, and I shall fish too!” shouted Douglas. 

“ And Uncle Harry will have cwicket with us! ” cried the 
twins. 

“ Of course he wrote to me, as I’m the eldest,” said Molly, 
proudly ; “ if you’ll be very good I’ll read you his letter.” 
And producing a very crumpled envelop from her pocket, 
she read : 



“ Dear Madam Molly : I have had orders from your re- 
spected parents to come down for an inspection of you all, 
so expect me Tuesday, the 27th inst. Tell nurse all com- 
plaints will be attended to, and punishment duly administered. 
She must get me a room somewhere for a week, as I have 
heard there is good fishing in your neighborhood. My love 
to doughty Douglas and the three B’s. 

“Your affectionate uncle, 

“ Harry. 

“ P.S. Tell nurse I shall bring a rod with me.” 

“ Isn’t he a funny dear? ” went on Molly. “ He pretends 
he’s coming to punish us! Won’t we have fun when he 
comes! ” 

“He doesn’t know there are six of us now,” observed Betty, 
with sparkling eyes. “ I wonder what he will say to Prince? ” 
102 


A Daring Feat 


The children could do little else but talk about their uncle's 
coming visit for the next week ; and when at last Tuesday 
arrived they were in a great state of excitement. Nurse could 
hardly curb their turbulent spirits. Captain Stuart was 
adored by his little nephews and nieces, and his visits were 
always a golden time. At last, after rescuing Douglas from 
a farm wagon that he was driving off during the carter’s ab- 
sence, Molly and Betty from an infuriated sow that they 
were trying to wash under the pump, and Bobby and Billy 
from a hay-cutter they were meditating using, nurse locked 
up all the five in the garret, hoping they would be safe there 
until their uncle arrived. Prince was left outside, and all 
Betty’s beseeching petitions that he might share their punish- 
ment were unheeded by nurse; so Prince crouched down 
outside the door, patiently keeping watch, and now and then 
responding to his little mistress’s voice through the keyhole 
by sundry whines and barks. 

“Nurse won’t dare to put us in Cells after to-day,” said 
Douglas, wrathfully ; “ she is just doing it to pretend to 
Uncle Harry that we’re always in disgrace, and I hate her! ” 

“ And I was going down to the brook to get some forget- 
me-nots to put in Uncle Harry’s room,” said Molly, plain- 
tively. 

“ It’s wather nice being punished all together,” said Bobby, 
who always dreaded being left alone. 

Betty said nothing ; her curly head was out of one of the 
windows, and she was deep in thought. At last she drew 
it in. 

“ S’posing the house was to take fire, and we were all to 
be locked in here? ” she suggested. 

Molly looked quite frightened at the thought, but Douglas 
rose to the occasion and he said triumphantly : 

“Yes, nurse would be in a pretty state then! Farmer 

103 



The Odd One 



Giles would rush off for a fire-engine; we would throw up 
the windows, and then I’d get out on the roof and make a 
speech. I’d remind nurse of all the nasty things she has 
said and done to us since we were babies— how she has said 
over and over again there never were such children in the 
world, and that we nearly drove her mad ; and then I’d say 
she’d be sorry now when she was going to see us burned 
before her eyes ; and she would be sobbing and crying, and 
so would Mrs. Giles and Sam, and all the others!” 

“ But they might get ladders to take us down,” suggested 
Molly. 

“ There’s only one ladder long enough. Sam would put 
that up, but the flames underneath the floor would come out 
and burn the ladder in two ; and there’s no fire-escape ; they 
don’t seem to have them in the country. I should go on 
speaking as long as I could, and then I should say we didn’t 
wish to go down to our graves angry, so we would forgive 
her, only we hoped the next children she had she would be 
kinder to. And then I would say good-by, and the roof 
would be cracking underneath me, and nurse would scream 
and cry ; and then I would take a leap right into the middle 
of the fire, and there would be a kind of explosion, and the 
house would fall in. And the next day there would be five 
heaps of bones and black ashes — all that was left of us ; and 
nurse would sit down with a broken heart in the middle of 
us.” 

Bobby and Billy had been listening to this awful story with 
their eyes nearly starting out of their heads, and now both 
burst into sobs of terror. "We’re going to be burned! 
Nurse, nurse, let us out ; we will be good! ” 

They were hushed up in scorn by Douglas, but Molly 
soothed and comforted them, assuring them it was only a 
make-up and that the house never would catch fire. 

104 



A Daring: Feat 

“ An d if it did catch fire I would get out safe,” said Betty 
solemnly ; “ for I should climb out of the window and walk 
along the gutter, holding on by the roof ; and then I should 
climb down by the pear-tree over Uncle Harry’s bedroom.” 

“You couldn’t do it,” said Douglas, scoffingly; “girls 
can’t climb! ” 

“ I could do it— I could do it now!” 

“ Then do it, do it — I dare you to do it! ” 

Betty’s eyes sparkled ; and Molly at once left the twins 
and ran to the window and put her head out. 

“ I think she could do it if we lifted her out, but it looks 
awful dangerous ; I should be afraid.” 

“ I’m not a bit afraid,” said Betty, sturdily. 

“You wait till you’re once out. I dare you to do it!” 
And Douglas danced up and down in delight at the coming 
excitement. 

Not a doubt entered Betty’s head as to the right or wrong 
of such an escapade ; her impulsive little soul was longing to 
prove to her brother her ability in climbing, and, audacious 
as she was in daring feats, this seemed to be a test of her 
oowers. The garret window was opened ; it was in the roof, 
jo Betty had no difficulty in climbing out and standing in 
the gutter which ran right round the house. Then slowly 
and carefully, in sight of the four admiring faces at the 
window, she commenced her perilous walk. Steadying her- 
self by leaning with one hand on the sloping roof at her right, 
Betty walked triumphantly on till she reached the corner of 
the house ; here she hesitated. 

“ Come back,” called out Molly ; “ you can’t turn the 
corner! ” 

“ I dare you to go on! ” naughty Douglas cried excitedly. 

There was breathless silence ; but others besides the little 
inmates of the garret were watching this feat in horror. Two 

105 



The Odd One 


gentlemen were walking leisurely through the meadow in 
front of the house. 

“What on earth is that on the roof, Stuart? Not a child, 
surely ! ” 

“A child it is. Good heavens! it’s one of my hopeful 
nieces; she’ll be dashed to pieces to a certainty! Come on, 
St. Clair, only don’t make a row!” 

They reached the house as Betty was in the act of turning 
the corner. For a moment the little figure swayed outwardly, 
and Captain Stuart quite expected that moment to be Betty’s 
last ; but she recovered her balance most miraculously, ac- 
complished the turn successfully, and went steadily on till 
she reached the pear-tree. 

Both gentlemen remained perfectly silent, knowing that a 
start might produce a false step, and they watched her de- 
scent to the ground now with less anxiety. Half-way down 
had Betty got when there was a rushing sound of feet, and 
nurse, with a scream of horror, appeared on the scene. 

Betty’s nerves gave way ; she placed her foot on a rotten 
branch, which broke under her ; her hands relaxed their hold. 
Another scream from nurse, echoed by Mrs. Giles behind 
her, and the child fell heavily, but safely, into her uncle’s 
arms below. 



106 


XII 

UNCLE HARRY'S FRIEND 

“ Here’s a pretty welcome for a tired man who wants his 
dinner! ” 

Betty was standing before her uncle with a white little face 
and determined, set mouth, and nurse was releasing the other 
little prisoners and bringing them down to their uncle. 

Captain Stuart’s friend was lounging on the low window- 
seat of the best parlor, looking on with an amused eye. 

“ Nurse thinks you ought to have a good whipping,” con- 
tinued Captain Stuart, stroking his long, fair mustache very 
gravely, though there was a twinkle in his blue eyes. “ I 
think we must have a court martial first. Were you trying 
to kill yourself, Betty? ” 

“ I was trying to save myself from a fire— I mean a fire 
that might be.” 

The sentence was begun bravely, but the little lips began 
to quiver. Shaken by her fall, afraid of her uncle’s anger, 
and uncomfortable by the presence of a stranger, she burst 
into tears. 

And then Captain Stuart took her on his knee and drew 
out his large handkerchief. 

“ There, little woman, rest your head against my shoulder 

107 




The Odd One 

and cry away; it will do you good. I was beginning to 
think you a little stoic.” 

The door opened, and the other children appeared with 
very large eyes and solemn faces. 

They kissed their uncle in a subdued fashion, and then 
Molly said, “ Nurse told us Betty had fallen ; is she hurt ? ” 

“ Is her legs bwoken? ” demanded the twins. 

“ I knew she couldn’t do it ; I told her she couldn’t! ” 

In an instant Betty’s face appeared from behind her hand- 
kerchief. “ I did do it— I did! and I could do it again to- 
morrow, so there, Douglas ! ” 

Then Uncle Harry laughed outright, after which he pulled 
himself up and said as sternly as he could : 

“Now look here, youngsters; I’m not good at scolding, 
as you know, but you’re all old enough to know that it is 
not true pluck to go crawling round roofs like cats, and run- 
ning the risks of breaking your necks and damaging your 
limbs for the rest of your lives. Now, then, who is to blame? 
Speak up like little soldiers, and don’t be ashamed of owning 
up and telling the truth about it.” 

There was a pause. Douglas got very red in the face, 
but blurted out, “ I dared her to do it.” 

“ And I said I thought she could do it,” said Molly, with 
tearful eyes ; “ but I did ask her to come back at the corner.” 

“ And I dared her to go on,” added Douglas. 

“And Bobby and me clapped our hands at her,” put in 
Billy, eagerly, feeling anxious to share in the glory of the 
escapade. 

“ Do you think it a brave thing to urge another on to 
danger, when perhaps you would be afraid of taking their 
place yourself? ” 

It was Douglas who was addressed, and he hung his head 
in shame. 

108 


Uncle Harry 1 's Friend 


“ But he was just getting out of the window to follow her 
when nurse came up,” said Molly, in defense of her favorite 
brother. 

“ I didn’t know boys were in the habit of following girls,” 
remarked Captain Stuart, dryly. “ I think doughty Douglas 
must have another name. Listen, my boy, and remember 
this to the end of your life. There were two young fellows 
came out to join our battalion in Egypt. We were ordered 
out one morning, and both these youngsters came with us. 
They were strong, fresh-faced young fellows, one especially ; 
he was the heir to a big property at home, and had left his 
widowed mother to come and earn a name for himself. I can 
see him now, with his sparkling eyes and merry laugh, as he 
rode on just in front of me with his chum. I won’t give you 
children details, but we had a sharp bit of fighting that morn- 
ing, and bullets were flying pretty freely. At the finish, when 
returning, having dispersed our enemy, we came across an- 
other party of them intrenched on a height. Orders were 
given to fire lying down, as they were skilled marksmen and 
had the advantage of the position. ‘ Now, then,’ whispered 
one of these young fellows to the other, ‘ make your name ; 
scale the hillside and storm their fort.’ 

“ ‘ I would if I had my orders to,’ was the quick retort. 

“ * We’re like rabbits in the underwood,’ the youngster 
went on. ‘ Do those skulking fellows think we’re afraid of 
showing ourselves? A good cheer and a sight of our rifles 
would soon send them to the right-abouts. The poor old 
major is dead beat and wants a nap, or he wouldn’t give such 
an order. Show yourself, Castleton ; let them have a sight 
of your six foot six. What, afraid ? ’ 

“In an instant Johnny Castleton stood up in the full 
strength of his manhood, and the next moment his brains 
were scattered by a bullet, his dead body falling into the 

109 



The Odd One 


arms of the friend who was the cause of his death. Do you 
think he died the death of a hero, Betty? How do you 
think his friend felt, Douglas, when he had to write home 
and tell the widowed mother her boy would never come 
back to her? Do you know, the folly of his act so weighed 
upon his mind that he left the army, and when I last heard 
of him his friends were afraid that his reason was giving way. 
There, now, I’ve made your faces solemn enough to satisfy 
nurse. And you will never dare your sisters to do foolhardy 
exploits again, will you, my boy? And you will never listen 
to him if he does, girls? Now my lecture is ended, and you 
can tell nurse to forgive you all. Where is Mrs. Giles? I 
wonder if she could put up my friend for a night or two? ” 

Captain Stuart put Betty down from his knee and rose to 
his feet. He so seldom lectured the children that his words 
left a deep impression, and none of them ever forgot the 
lesson imprinted on their minds. They were rather subdued 
for the rest of the day, and not altogether pleased at the 
advent of Major St. Clair. 

“We sha’n’t get Uncle Harry a bit to ourselves,” grumbled 
Douglas, as the children were playing in the garden while 
the gentlemen were at dinner; “he’ll be going out fishing 
with that other fellow every day, and he’s going to stay the 
whole week with him.” 

“ I like him rather,” said Molly ; “ he is something like 
Mr. Roper.” 

“ He has nice sad eyes,” put in Betty, “ and he likes 
Prince.” 

But before long Major St. Clair was taken into favor. He 
was a tall, dark man, with rather a stern look until he smiled, 
and then the children knew they need not be afraid, for he 
had more smiles than frowns for them during his stay. Doug- 
las, to his great delight, was allowed to go fishing with them. 



Uncle Harry's Friend 

“ You see,” he confided to his sisters, “they couldn’t get 
on very well without me, as I’m learning to put their bait 
on for them, and I help to unpack their luncheon basket, 
and very often I lie down on the bank and tell them stories ; 
they like that very much.” 

One afternoon they were all in the orchard under some 
shady trees ; the gentlemen were smoking and reading the 
papers, the children playing a little way off. Presently Betty 
came sauntering up to her uncle, Prince close at her heels. 

“ We’re going for a walk,” she said ; “ I s’pose you wouldn’t 
like to come with us? ” 

None of the little Stuarts ever did anything without first 
inviting their uncle to participate in it. 

“ No, I wouldn’t,” he said, leaning lazily back in his wicker 
chair and surveying the little figure before him with amused 
eyes. “Where are you bound? Your independence of 
thought and action will be sadly crippled when you get back 
to town. Does nurse let you all scour the country at your 
own free will? ” 

“What does ‘scour’ mean?” asked Betty, with knitted 
brows. “Does it mean ‘scrub’? for I’m sure the country 
doesn’t want cleaning.” Then, not liking the laugh follow- 
ing her words, she went on hastily : “ Nurse doesn’t ask where 
I go, so I don’t tell her ; but I go to church when I don’t go 
to Mr. Russell.” 

“And what do you do there? ” 

“ Well,” said Betty, looking very steadily at her uncle, “if 
you and Major St. Clair won’t say anything about it, I’ll tell 
you.” 

“ Wild horses won’t tear it from me,” said the major. 

“ I go to take some flowers to a little dead girl there ; she 
likes to smell them and hold them in her hands instead of 
the dead lily she has got. And then I’ve got a friend who 

111 



The Odd One 



meets me there,— a lady she is,— and she sings the most 
beautiful songs on the organ ! they make me cry sometimes. 
And the church is so dark and still and cool — it’s a beautiful 
place.” 

“ Will you let me come with you? ” asked Major St. Clair, 
rising as he spoke. 

“ It is an enchanting program,” murmured Uncle Harry ; 
“ tears among the dead! I warn you, my dear fellow, the 
church is nearly a mile away.” 

“ I want to stretch my legs,” was the response. 

Betty set off radiant, with much self-importance. 

“ You see,” she said, looking up at the major through her 
long lashes as she trotted along at his side, “ I don’t always 
ask people to come with me ; Prince and I are quite enough. 
But you’re a visitor, and so is Uncle Harry. You won’t talk 
or make a noise in church, will you? And will you help me 
to get some honeysuckle from the hedge as we go along? 
Violet will like to smell it — at least, I make believe she will.” 

The walk seemed a short one to the major, Betty enter- 
tained him so well. When they reached the church she 
took him straight to the monument she loved so much, and 
was pleased with his genuine admiration of it. She placed 
the honeysuckle reverentially in the clasped hands of the little 
figure, which she stooped down to kiss as usual, and then 
pointed to the stained window above. 

“ Don’t you like it? ” she said in a solemn whisper. “ And 
do you see the text? Mr. Russell put it there. I was ask- 
ing him the other day about it. I asked him if he was like 
one of the disciples, that wanted to keep the children away 
from Jesus, and if he put it up for that ; and he said yes, he 
did want to forbid Violet to go to Jesus when He called her. 
I expect Violet is very glad she wasn’t kept back, don’t you 
think so? ” 

112 


Uncle Harry's Friend 


“ I expect so,” the major responded gravely. 

“ She wasn’t any bigger than me,” continued Betty, stand- 
ing before the window with clasped hands, and that upward, 
dreamy look that always came upon her sweet little face 
when talking about serious things, “but she’s got through 
tribulation safely. Mr. Russell told me how she bore all the 
pain of her illness for a whole year without a grumble ; and 
pain and suffering is tribulation, isn’t it? ” 

“ What do you know about tribulation? ” 

How often had Betty been asked that question ! 

“I know a great deal about it,” she said, looking at the 
major very earnestly; “and though I haven’t had it, I’m 
expecting to. Have you had it? ” 

“No, I don’t know that I have,” was the amused reply. 
Then, a shadow crossing his face, he added, “ Trouble and 
I are not strangers ; I think I have had my share.” 

“And a big trouble is tribulation, isn’t it? And it’s on 
the way to heaven.” 

Then the major smiled his sweet smile. “ That’s it, Betty 
— on the way to heaven. ‘We must through much tribula- 
tion enter into the kingdom of God.’ ” 

“And have you had a big trouble? ” persisted the child. 

“ Yes, I have,” the major said slowly, “ a very big trouble, 
Betty. At one time of my life it would have overwhelmed 
me, but I’ve learned to take things differently now.” 

“ You’ll hear my friend sing about tribulation, p’r’aps, if I 
ask her to. She will be here directly. Where will you sit? 
I like to sit on the chancel-step, and Prince sits in my 
lap.” 

“ I will find a seat for myself. Perhaps I shall slip away 
into the sunshine again.” 

And Major St. Clair sauntered round the church, looking 
at the old tablets, until he heard the door open, and then he 

113 



The Odd One 

slipped into a seat at the side of the church behind an old 
stone pillar. 

Betty seated herself on the chancel-steps after her greetings 
with her friend were over. The picture she made as she sat 
there was long riveted on Major St. Clair’s memory: the 
golden sunshine streaming in, the old carved pews in the 
background, and the dainty little white figure hugging her 
spaniel in her arms, would have charmed an artist’s eye. 
But it was not this sight that made the strong man suddenly 
turn pale and clutch the back of the seat in front of him with 
nervous, trembling hands ; his startled gaze was no longer 
upon Betty, but upon the slight, graceful figure that was now 
taking her seat at the organ. 

Betty’s clear, childish voice was heard : 

“ Please sing about tribulation. I’ve brought some one 
with me who would like to hear it. He’s listening at the 
back of the church.” 

Nesta gave a hasty look round, but, seeing no one, turned 
again to the organ, and in a minute her beautiful voice rose 
in the triumphant strains of the song of the redeemed. Major 
St. Clair folded his arms and stood up behind his pillar. He 
seemed strangely moved, and as the last notes died away he 
hastily quitted the church. 



XIII 

44 WHEN WE TWO MET!" 

Betty was so absorbed in the music that she forgot all 
about the major. 

“ When I grow up, do you think I shall be able to play 
and sing like you do? ” she asked with a little sigh of happi- 
ness. 

“ I dare say you may, dear.” 

“ But shall I have an organ to play? In the City you 
can’t go into any church and play, can you? ” 

“ No ; it is only because I know the clergyman here that 
he gives me permission.” 

“ And why do you never come to church here on Sunday? ” 

“ Because we have a little church nearer us ; but it has not 
an organ, and so I come over here.” 

“ Do you know what I do when you’re singing? I shut 
my eyes and pretend I’m in heaven. It’s lovely! If you 
shut yours you could pretend too, and I wish you could go 
on singing for ever and ever! ” 

Nesta laughed and kissed the little eager, upturned face. 
“ I should get very tired and hungry, I’m afraid. I am not 
an angel, Betty. But you’re right, darling— I, too, get very 
near to heaven when I’m singing.” And she added mus- 
ingly : 



115 


The Odd One 



“ In heart and mind ascending, 

My spirit follows Thee.” 

When, a little later, Nesta came out of the church with 
Betty, the tall figure of Major St. Clair came forward to 
meet them. 

“ Good afternoon, Miss Fairfax.” 

His tone was cold and grave, but Nesta started and turned 
white to her very lips ; then with an effort she recovered her 
composure and held out her hand. 

“ It is a long time since we have met,” she said. 

There was a pause, but Betty came to the rescue with the 
delightful unconsciousness of childhood. 

“ Do you know my Miss Fairfax? ” she asked the major. 
‘‘You never told me you did. Didn’t she sing beautifully? 
Did you like ‘Tribulation’? We like it the best of all her 
songs, don’t we, Prince? ” 

She stooped to caress her little dog; then, as he broke 
away from her, she darted after him. 

Major St. Clair stood still, and his eyes never moved from 
Nesta’s face. 

“ Do we meet as strangers? ” he asked. 

“ No,” she said a little unsteadily, and her lips quivered in 
spite of herself as she strove in vain to meet his gaze calmly ; 
“as old friends, I hope.” 

“ Never! ” he said, a passionate light coming into his eyes. 
“ It must be everything or nothing to me, as I told you long 
ago.” 

She was silent ; a little sigh escaped her, so hopeless and 
yet so patient that Major St. Clair continued hotly : 

“ I would not have come here had I known you were in 
this neighborhood ; but, having met, I cannot go without a 
word with you. Nesta, you are not happy ; I see it in your 

face. Time has not soothed and comforted you. Why will 
116 


44 When We Two Met ! ” 


you not let me share your trouble and stand by you when 
perhaps you need a friend more than ever you did in days of 
old? Do you realize the blank you are making in my life 
as well as in your own ? Yes, I know I am taking much for 
granted, but yours is not a nature to change. I believe in 
you now as I always did, and it is only your mistaken ideas 
of duty that have brought this trouble into our lives.” 

He paused, and then Nesta spoke, looking away from the 
low churchyard wall by which they were standing to the hills 
in the distance. 

“ I am sorry we have met,” she said simply — “ very sorry, 
for it is pain to us both. But the circumstances in my life 
have not changed ; I cannot act differently. My mother 
and sister require me, and my mother — ” Her voice faltered. 

“ Your mother is still of the same opinion,” he said. “ I 
look back with regret to my heated words when last I saw 
her. Time and another Teacher have shown me since where 
I was wrong. But, Nesta, let me plead my — may I say our? 
— cause with her again. She has no right to spoil our lives, 
and it is no true kindness to her to allow her to do it. Give 
me your permission to come and see her.” 

“ I cannot ; it will only stir up her grief and pain afresh. 
She will not — cannot — look at things in a different light.” 

“And are you going to part with me like this? ” 

His tone was low and husky with feeling. He added a 
little drearily, “ I wonder, after all, if your affection has 
cooled? You speak so calmly about it all that it makes one 
think—” 

Nesta heard him so far, and then put out her hand as if 
to stop him. “ O Godfrey! ” 

That was all, but as the old, familiar name slipped from 
her lips she burst into tears, and, turning aside, leaned her 
arms on the old wall and buried her head in them. 


117 


The Odd One 



Major St. Clair stepped up quickly. “ Nesta, Nesta, you 
must not! I cannot stand it! My darling, we cannot part 
like this! ” 

What he might have done was never known. Perhaps, 
with his strong arm round her, Nesta would have yielded 
then and there, but a most inopportune childish voice broke 
in close by. 

“You’ve made her cry! You’ve made my Miss Fairfax 
cry ! ” And with a little rush Betty flew to comfort her friend. 

In an instant Nesta was standing erect again. 

“ It is nothing, darling ; we have been talking over old 
times. Good-by, Major St. Clair.” 

She turned down a path at the side of the church, while 
Major St. Clair gazed after her in bewilderment and vexatior. 

“ Oh! ” he said, shaking his head at Betty as they retraced 
their way homeward, “ you’re like a little boy I once knew, 
who would bring me a delicious plate of cherries. ' Would 
you like to have some, major? Look at them ; aren’t they 
lovely?’ And then, as I stretched out my hand, he would 
snatch them back with malicious glee and gobble them up in 
my sight.” 

“ He was a very rude little boy,” said Betty, a little of- 
fended, “ and I don’t think I’m a bit like him, for I haven’t 
brought you anything this afternoon.” 

Very restless and uneasy was Major St. Clair all that even- 
ing. Captain Stuart more than once took him to task for his 
moodiness and absence of mind, but was quite unsuccessful 
in eliciting a satisfactory explanation. 

The next day they went off fishing together, but about four 
o’clock Major St. Clair left his friend and sauntered back to 
the house. Finding Betty and Prince playing together out- 
side, he called her to him, and, lying full length on the grass, 
led her on to talk about Nesta. Betty innocently fell in with 
118 



“When We Two Met!” 


his wish ; she gave him a graphic description of her day at 
Holly Grange, and then went back to the day when she first 
met Mrs. Fairfax in the wood. 

“ She’s like a queen,” said the eager child, “ her face is so 
stern and proud ; but she’s very sad. Every grown-up per- 
son seems sad about here! I like Mrs. Fairfax very much ; 
she gave me Prince.” 

Major St. Clair listened, and asked questions, and then 
suddenly started to his feet. 

“ Come for a walk with me,” he said. “ Wait till I have 
written a letter, and then we will start.” 

“To church again?” inquired Betty. 

“ No, not to church; to Holly Grange.” 

“ It’s miles and miles,” said Betty, dubiously; “ I went in 
a pony carriage, but if you go by the wood it is shorter.” 

“ Oh, we shall manage it very well, and if you are tired I 
will carry you.” 

Major St. Clair’s tone was quite cheerful, and Betty set off 
with him, delighted at being chosen as his companion. 

“ Are you going to see Miss Fairfax? ” she asked presently. 

“No, I don’t think I shall go into the house at all ; but I 
want you to take a note to Mrs. Fairfax and bring me back 
an answer.” 

Betty colored up with pleasure. “ I shall like to do that,” 
she said ; “ it’s such a nice house inside, and you should see 
the flowers ! I think I could be quite happy if I were Mrs. 
Fairfax, couldn’t you? ” 

She chattered on, and when at last the gates were reached 
Major St. Clair intrusted her with the important letter. 

“ Give it to Mrs. Fairfax yourself, Betty, and tell her I 
would like to see her very much.” 

Betty nodded and clasped the letter tightly in one little 
hand; Prince followed her closely up the drive. The hall 

119 



The Odd One 



door stood open, and for a moment the child hesitated ; then 
the old butler crossed the hall, and she called out eagerly : 

“ Please, can I come in and see Mrs. Fairfax? ” 

The man looked surprised. “ I don’t think she will see 
you,” he said, smiling; “ Mrs. Fairfax sees no visitors.” 

“ But I’m not a visitor,” said the little girl ; “ I’m only 
Betty, and I’ve got a letter to give her.” 

“ I will go and see.” 

He disappeared, but returned a minute after. 

“ Come in, missy — this way.” 

He led the child into the parlor, where Mrs. Fairfax was 
presiding at the afternoon tea-table. Nesta was not there, 
and Grace was just leaving the room. 

A smile lightened Mrs. Fairfax’s grave face at the sight of 
Betty. 

“ All alone? ” she asked, bending down to kiss her. 

“I’ve come to bring you a letter,” said Betty, dimpling 
over with pleasure and importance. 

Mrs. Fairfax made her sit down in a little cushioned chair 
and took the note in her hand. As she read it she knitted 
her brows, and her lips took their sternest curve ; then, rising, 
she went to the farther end of the room and stood looking 
out of the low French window, her back turned to Betty and 
her hands clenched convulsively by her side. 

Nesta was right in surmising what a torrent of painful 
memories would be aroused by Major St. Clair’s advent in 
their neighborhood. 

If the letter had come a few weeks before there would 
have been only one answer, but Mrs. Fairfax had been learn- 
ing lately from the great Master Himself, and her heart was 
softened and subdued. Still it was a hard struggle, and pride 
fought for predominance. At length she turned round and 
went to her writing-desk, and then Betty crept up softly to her. 


120 


44 When We Two Met ! ” 


“ Major St. Clair asked me to ask you to see him,” she 
said, laying her little hand on Mrs. Fairfax’s knee. 

“ I will write my answer, Betty ; I cannot do that,” was 
the cold reply, as Mrs. Fairfax turned her head away from 
the child. 

But Betty was not to be put off. 

“ I think he would like to see you very much ; and you’d 
like him, for he is Uncle Harry’s friend; and he has such 
sad eyes, and he has been through tribulation like you — at 
least, he has had a big trouble, he told me, and that’s just 
the same, isn’t it ? ” 

There was no answer. 

Betty continued : “ Shall I just go out and bring him in? 
I’ve been telling him about you this afternoon, and how you 
gave me the lilies and Prince, and he liked to hear it. He 
asked me a lot of questions, and I think he wants to see you, 
and if you’re like a queen, like I told him.” 

Then Mrs. Fairfax lifted the child on her knee. “ O Betty, 
Betty!” was all she said, but some glistening drops fell on 
the child’s curly head as the gray head was bent over it, and 
Betty wondered why Mrs. Fairfax’s voice sounded so strange. 
“ I think you will have to bring him in here,” Mrs. Fairfax 
said at last, and Betty trotted out of the room in great delight. 
She found the major pacing up and down the road with a 
white, resolute face. He threw away the cigar he was smok- 
ing when he saw the child, and asked, with anxiety in his 
dark eyes : 

“Well, little woman, how have you fared? ” 

“ You’re to come in and see her.” 

“ Thank God! ” And not another word did the major say 
till he was in the parlor. 

It was a constrained and formal greeting between the two, 
and then Mrs. Fairfax turned to Betty : 


121 



The Odd One 

“Will you run into the garden, dear, till we call you? I 
think Grace is out there.” 

Betty obeyed. Grace was walking slowly up and down 
the path, enveloped in shawls, and did not look well pleased 
when the childish voice sounded in her ear : 

“ May I come and walk with you? ” 

“Were you sent out here? Nesta, I suppose, as usual, is 
out, so she will not be able to look after you, and I certainly 
am not in a fit state of health to amuse you and keep you 
out of mischief.” 

“ I’m not going to get into mischief, really,” protested 
Betty, in an aggrieved tone ; “ I’ll walk quietly along with 
you, and won’t even pick a flower. Are you better to-day? ” 

“No, I am not better; I don’t expect I ever shall be, 
though I can get no sympathy from any one in this house.” 

“What’s the matter with you? ” asked Betty. 

“ Now if you are going to worry me with questions, you 
can just run away. If you were to be kept awake night 
after night, and never know what it was to be without head- 
aches, having every nerve in your body quivering from ex- 
haustion, you wouldn’t wonder what the matter was.” 

“ I expect you’re like Violet, only she could never leave 
her bed. Mr. Russell said she would sometimes have no 
sleep all night, and she was so patient, she used to say, * Read 
me about “ There shall be no pain.” ’ Mr. Russell said he 
wouldn’t have been half so patient as she was. And now 
she is singing right in the middle of ‘ these are they which 
came out of great tribulation.’ Wouldn’t you like to be 
her? ” 

Grace was silent. Betty’s active little tongue turned to 
other subjects. She told about her visit to the Hall, of her 
“ dead figure ” which was being made out of “ soft putty ” ; 
of Prince’s misdemeanors when he tried to chase chickens, 
122 


44 When We Two Met!” 


and then came back to his little mistress with his tail between 
his legs ; of Douglas and Molly’s wonderful games, and the 
twins’ talents for getting into trouble; she told her of her 
walk on the roof, and the story of the young soldiers related 
by Uncle Harry. And Grace listened, and eventually was 
amused and interested in spite of herself. 

It was a long time before Betty was summoned to the 
house, and then she met the major in the hall. 

“ Run in, little one, and wish Mrs. Fairfax good-by.” 

Mrs. Fairfax stooped to kiss Betty ; all the hard lines in 
her face had disappeared, and her voice was unusually 
gentle. 

“You must come and see me another day, when I have 
no business to occupy me.” 

And Betty put her arms round her neck and gave her a 
delighted hug. 

“You will meet Nesta coming back from the church if 
you keep to the lane,” Mrs. Fairfax said, speaking to Major 
St. Clair, “ and we shall expect you to dinner to-morrow.” 

He raised his hat, and strode round the shrubbery with 
such energy that it was all Betty could do to keep up with 
him. 

“ Don’t you think Mrs. Fairfax like a queen? ” asked 
Betty, presently. “ Was she like what I told you? ” 

“ I have seen Mrs. Fairfax before,” was the major’s short 
reply. And Betty gave a little disappointed “ Oh!” 

Not long afterward they came in sight of Nesta. She 
was walking along rather slowly, her eyes and her thoughts 
far away, but when she saw who it was a quick color spread 
over her face. 

Major St. Clair stepped forward quickly. 

“Your mother has sent me to you,” he said, and there 
was a glad ring in his tone. 

123 



The Odd One 


Nesta looked up at him bewildered. 

“ My mother! Have you seen her? ” 

“ Yes, thanks to this little person here with me.” 

Betty was kissed, but for once Nesta seemed oblivious of 
her presence. The child could not understand it, neither 
could she understand the explanation that followed in low, 
earnest tones. She saw Nesta’s eyes light up with a sudden 
joy and then fill with tears; she saw Major St. Clair bend 
his head very close to hers; and though she stood silently 
by, she might just as well have been miles away, for all the 
notice that she received. At last, with a little sigh, she said : 

“ I’m rather tired ; I think I’ll go home with Prince.” 

Nesta turned to her at once. 

“You poor little mite! Godfrey, will you carry her? I 
must leave you. No, don’t come with me; I shall see you 
to-morrow, and I would rather see my mother alone. She 
has been so different lately, but I never dared to hope for 
this! Good-by, Betty ; you have been our little benefactor.” 

Betty was hoisted on the broad shoulders of the major and 
carried home in silence ; he was busy with his own thoughts, 
and she was tired and sleepy. 

They found Captain Stuart impatiently waiting for dinner. 

“Where have you been?” he asked. “Has Betty be- 
witched you? ” 

“She has done me a good turn to-day,” responded the 
major. 

Betty slipped her little hand into her uncle’s. 

“We’ve been to Holly Grange, Uncle Harry. I think 
Major St. Clair and my Miss Fairfax must have quarreled 
yesterday, for he made her cry ; but they kissed each other 
and made it up to-day, and now we’re all friends.” 



124 



XIV 


A HERO'S DEATH 

Captain Stuart’s week was prolonged to a fortnight, 
much to the children’s delight. They were all astonished 
when they heard that Major St. Clair was going to marry 
Betty’s Miss Fairfax. Betty herself was very puzzled about 
it, for she was still unconscious of how large a part she had 
played in the little drama, and only wondered sometimes 
that Nesta seemed to care so little for the organ now, and 
was so often occupied in walking or driving with the major. 
This, perhaps, made her enjoy her visits to Mr. Russell’s 
studio the more ; and when one day he put the finishing touch 
to the bit of sculpture, she looked rather wistfully at him. 

“And mustn’t I come here any more now? ” 

“ Come as often as you like,” was the hearty reply ; “ I 
like you chatting away to me while I work.” 

“ I’ve a good many friends here,” announced Betty, upon 
the last evening of Captain Stuart’s stay. “ I think I’ve 
more friends than Molly and Douglas have. They don’t 
care about grown-up people; I rather like them!” 

“ We like Uncle Harry,” protested Molly. 

“ And who do you like the best of all your friends, Betty? ” 
asked Major St. Clair. 

“ I think I like Mr. Russell. You see, he’s an odd one, 

125 


The Odd One 



like I used to be before I had Prince. Miss Fairfax used 
to be an odd one too, but she’s one of a couple now. Mr. 
Russell has got no one ; he’s quite alone.” 

There was great laughter at Betty’s speech. 

“ I think I’m an odd one, Betty,” Captain Stuart said. 
“ What do you advise? My making myself into a couple? ” 

“Two and two are so much more comfortable,” went on 
Betty, gravely ; “ I don’t really know what I should do if I 
hadn’t Prince to go with! Really, at the bottom of my heart, 
I love him better than anybody. Couldn’t you get a dog, 
if you can’t get any one else, Uncle Harry? You’d find 
yourself in a very nice couple then.” 

How Captain Stuart laughed! And Betty was the only 
one who could see no joke in the matter. 

After the gentlemen had left, the children had a quiet 
time. Betty would still steal away to the church to hear 
Nesta sing and play; and once all the children spent a 
day at Holly Grange. Nurse was getting a little tired of 
the quiet country life, and began to talk about the return, to 
the City, which filled her little charges’ hearts with dismay. 

“ It will be dreadful to sit up and do lessons again,” moaned 
Molly. 

“ I think,” said Douglas, slowly, “ that I shall get lost the 
day we are going back, and then I shall live in the wood in 
that little hut. I shall be a kind of wild man, and I shall 
eat berries and nuts, and when I want some meat I shall kill 
a rabbit and cook him. I really cannot stand being cooped 
up in that nursery at home again.” 

“ I’ve never, never been so happy in my life before,” Betty 
chimed in; “but then, of course, I shall take Prince with 
me. Fancy! if we had never come to this farm, we should 
never have gone to that wood, and I should never have seen 
Mrs. Fairfax, and she would never have sent me Prince! ” 
126 


A Hero's Death 


“ It’s always ‘ Prince ’ with you,” Douglas said a little im- 
patiently ; “ you can talk of no one else.” 

The day following the one on which this conversation was 
held, Farmer Giles came into the kitchen in great perturba- 
tion about twelve o’clock. 

“ Where are the children? ” he demanded quickly. 

Nurse came into the room leading Bobby, who had been 
undergoing a change of garments through a tumble into the 
duck-pond. 

“ They’re out in the meadows,” she said. “ What’s the 
matter? ” 

“I’m afraid there’s a dog of Mr. Dart’s loose; I’ve just 
heard say it’s gone mad and can’t be found! It’s these 
dreadful hot days. I’ve just chained up Rough. Little Miss 
Betty must look after that dog of hers. Tom Dart and a 
neighbor is out huntin’ for theirs now.” 

“A mad dog!” exclaimed nurse, in horror. “Call them 
in, Jack, do. What should I do if they met it? ” 

And leaving Bobby in the kitchen, she, as well as her 
brother, ran out to warn the children. They found them in 
a clover-field, under the trees. Douglas was busy trying to 
work his way inside an old hollow trunk, Molly was dig- 
ging down a rabbit hole, and Billy was waiting upon them 
both. 

“Where is Miss Betty? ” 

“She’s gone along the lane,” said Douglas, looking up 
with a very heated face ; “ I sent her to the brook to get 
some water ; we’re going to lay in provisions for a siege, and 
this tree will be our hiding-place.” 

“And I’m digging for treasure money,” said Molly. 

“ Is Prince with her? ” asked nurse, anxiously. 

“Yes ; he won’t ever stay with us.” 

“They’re safe enough in this field,” said Farmer Giles, 

127 






The Odd One 



looking round ; “ but they’d best not wander in the lanes. 
We must have Miss Betty back.” 

Betty meanwhile was trotting contentedly along, hugging 
an old earthenware jar. 

“We’ll get them some water, Prince, and then you shall 
be the sentry ; Douglas said you could be. Directly you 
hear a step you must bark! ” 

Prince looked up, wagged his tail in response, and began 
to burrow in the grass for imaginary frogs. 

And then Betty, feeling her jar very heavy, sat down against 
the hedge-bank to rest. She remained there some time, 
chatting away to her dog, and was just starting on her way 
again when shouts up the lane startled her. 

A moment after, and straight down the lane toward her 
tore a large retriever ; his mouth was open and covered with 
foam, and he kept making snaps at the air as he rushed along. 
After him came two men and some boys. 

“ Out of the way ! ” they shouted ; “ he’s mad! 

Poor little Betty stood in the middle of the lane, quite 
petrified. It was a very narrow lane ; the banks and hedges 
were high on either side, and there literally seemed no escape 
for the child. On he came with open jaws and bloodshot 
eyes, and in another moment a shrill, childish scream rose in 
the air, which sent an awful chill through nurse’s blood, for 
she was now close upon the scene. She arrived just as Tom 
Dart had got near enough to the dog to fire, and the report 
of a gun went off as she clambered over a gate into the lane. 

She saw the body of the poor beast in the road, with Tom 
standing over it, but with trembling limbs made her way 
along to the little crowd now assembled higher up the lane. 
They were bending down over something in the middle of 
the road. Was it Betty? 

“ Is she safe? Who is hurt ? ” she gasped as she pushed 
128 



A Hero's Death 


her way through. There, in agony of grief and terror, Betty 
was sitting upon the ground, shielding with her little arms 
her precious dog. “You sha’n’t take him from me — you 
sha’n’t; he’s my very own, and he’s nearly killed!’’ she was 
crying frantically. 

Nurse seized hold of her and the dog together. “Are 
you hurt, child? Speak! Thank God, it’s only the dog! ” 

Farmer Giles was already there, questioning the excited 
crowd. “ He was making straight for her, but the little dog 
dashed in front just in time. See how he’s bitten! Take 
him away from the little missy ; he’ll have to be shot! ’Twas 
lucky for her she had him with her!” This and more was 
told with gaps and pauses ; but Betty saw and heard nothing 
of what was going on around her. She seemed almost beside 
herself with terror and grief. 

“Take us away, nurse! Get 
He mustn’t, oh, he mustn’t die! 

I won’t, I won’t let him go!” 

“ Come, come,” said Farmer Giles, soothingly ; “ I won’t 
hurt him. We must see where he is bitten ; perhaps I can 
put him to rights. You let me carry him home. There, 
see, he’s been bitten in his neck! But you’re hurting him 
holding him so tightly! You let me carry him for you, and 
you can walk by my side.” 

“ Will you bathe him and put a bandage round, and make 
him well again? ” 

There was hope dawning in the blue eyes raised so trust- 
fully to his, and for a moment the farmer hesitated ; then he 
said, “ We’ll do the best for him we can.” 

And Betty opened her arms, and Prince was tenderly lifted 
up, and a piece of sacking the farmer happened to have with 
him was wrapped round him. He lifted his head, and tried 
to lick Betty’s little hands as he was being taken from her ; 

129 



a doctor! he’s bleeding! 
Don’t touch him! Oh, 



The Odd One 

and she, with a fresh burst of sobbing, got up from the 
ground, and, clutching hold of the farmer’s coat, walked 
back to the house with him, nurse trying in vain to comfort 
her. 

Arrived at the farm, nurse took decided measures. 

“ You come indoors with me, there’s a good child, and let 
Jack attend to Prince. He will come and tell you when 
he’s better. No, I won’t let you take him in your arms 
again — now I mean it.” 

“ I must just see him once more — I must, nurse!” 

“ Aye,” said the farmer, giving nurse a peculiar look, “ she 
shall have one more look at him before I take him.” 

The sacking was uncovered, and Prince’s ears pricked up 
and his bright brown eyes sought his little mistress’s face. 
Betty bent over him, and was allowed to kiss the back of his 
brown silky head. “ My little darling,” she whispered, though 
tears began to fall again, “ I wish I had been bitten instead 
of you!” Then, turning to Farmer Giles, she said, clasping 
her little hands in agony of entreaty : 

“You’ll be as quick as ever you can, won’t you? You 
won’t be more than five minutes bathing his neck and binding 
it up, will you? And then I’ll sit by and nurse him till he 
gets better. Will you put him in this basket and bring him 
to me as soon as ever you can? ” 

“Yes, yes,” said the farmer, a little gruffly, and then he 
went out to the stables. And Betty stood by the kitchen 
window, too well trained in obedience to attempt to follow 
him, but with her little heart overflowing with longing to have 
Prince in her arms again. 

“ Now,” said nurse, very kindly but determinedly, “come 
up into the nursery, and let me wash your face and hands 
and put you on a clean pinafore.” 

“He will get better, won’t he, nurse? He didn’t look 


130 


A Hero's Death 


m 


very hurt. Can I give him some bread and milk when 
Farmer Giles brings him in? ” 

Nurse evaded this question ; she seemed ill at ease ; and 
when a few minutes after the report of a gun went off, she 
started violently, then gave a sigh of relief. Betty was too 
absorbed in her own thoughts to notice this, and directly her 
toilet was finished she ran downstairs to the kitchen again. 

“ Has Prince come in, Mrs. Giles? Is he better? ” 

“ Bless your little heart!” said Mrs. Giles, bustling about, 
“Jack will be in directly, and he’ll tell you.” 

And a few minutes after Farmer Giles appeared. Betty 
ran to him with outstretched hands. “Where is he? Are 
you going to take me to him? ” 

The farmer looked helplessly at his wife. 

“ Where is nurse ? ” he said. 

“ Keeping out of the way,” muttered Mrs. Giles. 

The farmer fetched a deep breath. “ Come along, then,” 
he said ; “ I’ve done my best, and mustn’t shirk the conse- 
quence.” 

He took hold of Betty’s hand and led her to the stables ; 
twice he cleared his throat as if about to speak, and then at 
the door, keeping one hand on the latch, he put his other one 
under Betty’s little chin and raised her face. 

“ You’ll be a brave, good little maid, won’t you? ” he said ; 
“ and you’ll bear up, for ’tis better for the little dog than to 
live in suffering.” 

He opened the door, and Betty, not in the slightest un- 
derstanding his words, pushed her way breathlessly in. 

There in his basket, cold and stiff, lay poor little Prince. 
For one minute Betty thought he was asleep, and then the 
awful truth dawned upon her. With her blue eyes dilating 
with horror, she turned and faced the old farmer, and every 
vestige of color left her cheeks. 




i\e> 


131 


The Odd One 

“ He’s not dead! ” she cried. “ Wake him up, Mr. Giles ; 
he sha’n’t be dead ! ” 

“ My little maid, I’m dreadful sorry for you, but ’tis better 
so ; and his neck were near bitten through ; he couldn’t have 
lived long in any case.” 

Betty flung herself on the floor with such a sharp wail of 
despair that Farmer Giles felt a lump rising in his throat. 
He knew there could be no comfort yet for the broken- 
hearted child ; that she must go through her trouble alone ; 
words at such a time were useless; and after watching her 
for some minutes, he slipped away to fetch nurse to bring 
her in. 

And Betty lay with her arms round Prince’s basket, sob- 
bing her very heart out, and feeling as if light and joy and 
gladness had gone out of her life forever. When nurse came 
in a little later, and put a gentle hand on the little crouching 
figure, Betty turned round, furious in her grief. 

“Go away; I sha’n’t leave Prince! I wish I could die! 
O nurse, nurse!” and a fresh burst of sobs shook her; “tell 
me he isn’t dead — tell me he isn’t! ” 

Nurse tried in vain to pacify her; Betty was too over- 
wrought to listen. One thing she steadfastly refused to do, 
and that was to leave her dog ; and nurse finally had to take 
her up in her arms by force and carry her, shrieking and 
struggling, to the house. Poor little Betty did not prove 
herself a heroine, but nurse made allowance for her, and was 
unusually patient and tender. 

“ It’s like a bit of her life gone,” she confided to Mrs. 
Giles. “ I always think it a pity when children get so 
wrapped up with their pets ; but Miss Betty never does any- 
thing by halves.” 

All that hot afternoon Betty lay on her bed in the nursery ; 
nurse could not tempt her to eat any dinner. And when the 
132 


A Hero's Death 

first paroxysm of grief was over, she lay there, white and 
silent, with little clenched hands, and now and then a quick- 
drawn sob escaping her. 

Nurse was relieved and thankful when, going in quietly 
shortly before tea-time, she found her fast asleep, utterly 
worn out by her trouble. 



133 


The Odd One 

Nesta Fairfax came down to see her little favorite, and 
Betty shed many tears on her knee. 

“ It’s no good; I shall never, never be happy again! No 
one cares for me like Prince; and now he’s dead I’ve no 
friend left!” 

“ You have a good many friends, Betty. Listen, darling ; 
when I’m married I’m going to live in the City, and you 
shall come and stay with me sometimes, if your mother will 
allow it.” 

“ When are you going to be married? ” 

“ Soon ; but we shall have a very quiet wedding, or I 
would have you as a little bridesmaid.” 

Betty shook her curly head mournfully. “ It’s no good ; 
my heart is broken, and I don’t want to stay with anybody 
or do anything.” 

She had the same answer to any one who tried to comfort 
her. And then one afternoon Mr. Russell appeared on the 
scene. When he heard from nurse how matters lay, he pro- 
posed that Betty should come and stay with him for a week. 
“It is change of scene and atmosphere that she wants. Let 
me take her back with me at once ; my housekeeper will take 
good care of her.” And this was managed, and Betty walked 
away with him quietly and contentedly. 

She was certainly happier roaming through his big house 
than she had been at the farm ; but there seemed to be some 
extra weight on her mind that she would not reveal, and it 
was not until the first Sunday after her arrival there that he 
discovered the cause. 

They had been to church together, had waited until the 
congregation had dispersed, and stood by Violet’s monument. 
Betty had placed some fresh roses on it, and as they were 
leaving the church she said, looking back wistfully : 

“ I wish Prince had been buried in church ; no one cares 


136 


Comforted 


about his grave! I put flowers on it, but the chickens run 
through the orchard and scratch them off ; and one day the 
horrid black pig was grunting with his nose, and making a 
great hole in it. I wish he could have a tombstone! No 
one cares a bit, and they almost laugh if I say anything 
about it.” 

“ Is that what is troubling you? ” asked Mr. Russell, kindly. 

u That’s one of the things, but not the big thing.” 

“ And what is the big thing? ” 

Betty was silent ; then she said, “ I’ll tell it to you — p’r’aps 
this afternoon.” 

They went back to luncheon, and then Mr. Russell took 
his seat in the shady veranda that ran round the house. It 
was a still, warm afternoon. Betty got a stool, and, sitting 
down on it, rested her head against the knee of her friend. 
Outside the bees were humming round the roses and among 
the bright flower-beds on the lawn ; the birds were twittering 
in the old beeches close by ; but over the whole scene hung 
a Sabbath peace and repose. 

The child looked away to the soft, distant hills and the 
deep-blue sky. 

“Shall I tell you what I promised?” she asked at last, 
bringing her sad little eyes to Mr. Russell’s face. 

Mr. Russell nodded, and clutching rather nervously at his 
hand, Betty said a little hurriedly, “ Prince has always been 
so good, and I’ve talked so much to him of heaven, and he 
seemed to like it; and I— well, I tried to teach him his 
prayers, and I’ve prayed to God for him every night, that I 
thought he would be sure to go to heaven, don’t you think 
so? But I was reading Revelation, and I was thinking how 
perhaps he might be able to sing in heaven— perhaps God 
would give him a proper voice ; for Mrs. Giles told me she 
had a little deaf and dumb brother once who died, and she 

137 





The Odd One 


dog didn’t bite me ; and old Jenny said perhaps I was making 
an idol of Prince, and so he was taken away. How could 
I make an idol of him? I wouldn’t say my prayers to him 
instead of God! You wouldn’t be comforted to have those 
things said to you, would you? ” 

“No, I don’t think I should,” said Mr. Russell, smiling. 

“ Mrs. Fairfax wanted to give me another dog — a little 
puppy ; but I couldn’t ; I couldn’t have another dog when 
Prince is dead! You couldn’t have another Violet, could 
you? I think you and I understand, because we’ve now 
both had some one dead belonging to us.” 

Betty’s week lengthened into three. Mr. Russell seemed 
loath to part with her, and her subdued spirits and pathetic 
grief touched him greatly. But the visit came to an end at 
last, and about four o’clock one bright afternoon the dog-cart 
was driven round to take her home. 

“ You shall come and see me again, Betty,” said Mr. Rus- 
sell, brightly, “ and I shall come and see you when I am in 
the City. I used to be at college with your father, and shall 
like to renew his acquaintance. And next spring you ask 
your mother to take you to the Academy, where all the pic- 
tures are. I think you will see a white statue of a little girl 
asleep on a log of wood, and a — ” He stopped. 

“ And Prince,” put in Betty, sadly. “ I sha’n’t bear to 
look at him, and yet I should like to. I don’t mind going 
back to the City. I thought I could never be so happy any- 
where as in the country, but I’ve been miserabler than I ever 
was at home. I shall be miserable now for ever and ever!” 

“ Betty,” said Mr. Russell, suddenly, as they were driving 
through the sweet-scented lanes toward the farm-house, “ do 
you remember the text you said to me when I first saw you 
in the church, and you were putting forget-me-nots on my 
darling’s tomb? ” 

140 



Comforted 

“ I expect it was my tribulation text,” said Betty, musingly. 

“Yes, it was. You told me you were unhappy because 
you had not been through tribulation ; and a short time ago 
you told me that you were asking God to send you tribula- 
tion, and that you were hoping to get it soon.” 

“ And you told me the same as everybody else, that I 
didn’t know what I was wishing for. But I did, and I expect 
God will answer it ; for old Jenny said J should come through 
it, and perhaps I wouldn’t have to wait till I grew up.” 

“ I think,” said Mr. Russell, slowly, as he looked down at 
the wistful little face, “that God has been answering your 
prayer already.” 

Betty looked up breathlessly. “ How? ” 

“ I think He has sent you a little bit of tribulation to see 
if you can bear it, and if you will be a good, patient child 
over it, and not keep saying you will never be happy again.” 

Such a flash of light came across Betty’s face and into her 
big blue eyes! 

“ Do you really think God has taken away Prince to give 
me tribulation? O Mr. Russell, is it true— could it be? Is 
this coming through tribulation? ” 

Her whole face was quivering with intense feeling. 

“ I think it is as big a trouble as a little child like you can 
be called upon to bear,” said Mr. Russell, drawing her close 
to him ; “ and I think God has sent it to you for some good 
purpose.” 

A long-drawn sigh came from the child, and not another 
word did she say; but when nurse and the other children 
came out to welcome her back, they were all surprised to see 
the radiant, happy look upon her face, and nurse inwardly 
congratulated herself upon the good her visit had done her. 
Mr. Russell received a fervent kiss and hug on departing, 
and Betty came back to her own circle again. 



141 


The Odd One 


But a glad surprise awaited her. Douglas and Molly were 
full of a suppressed mystery all tea-time, and when it was 
over they impatiently begged her to come to the orchard. 
She accompanied them willingly, but gave a cry of delight 
and astonishment when she reached the old apple-tree. There 
was a neat little iron railing surrounding poor Prince’s grave ; 
above it was a stone pedestal, and upon this was lying the 
stone figure of Prince himself, the facsimile of the portrait of 
him lying at Betty’s feet when she was fast asleep in the corn- 
field. Below, in gold letters, was written : 

To the Memory of Prince 
Who gave his life for his mistress, nth August , 18 — 


“ Mr. Russell had it put up,” said Molly. “ He has come 
over several times about it, and he said he wanted it to be 
kept quite a secret till you came back. Isn’t it lovely? ” 
But Betty had no voice to answer; tears were flowing 
freely, and when Douglas and Molly tried to comfort her, 
she assured them it was only because she was so happy. 
They left her there shortly after, and she stood silent for 
some time ; then her little face shone again with a soft radi- 
ance, and, kneeling down on the green grass, with closed 
eyes, she bent her curly head, and these were the words she 
uttered : 

“ O God, I thank you for answering my prayer and send- 
ing me tribulation. I thank you that I’m in the text at 
last!” 



- X&HFX* 





By the Author of 44 4 Probable Sons/ ” 


The Odd One. Profusely Illustrated. Small 4to, dec- 
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* l Probable Sons." Illustrated. 60th thousand. Small 


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Paper 1 5 


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Fleming H* Re veil Company 

New York: 112 Fifth Ave. Chicago : 63 Washington St. 

Toronto : 154 Yonge St. 


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